Cushion Cover Upcycle

On one of my gallivants through second-hand stores, I found a striped man's shirt that took my fancy. It was too big for me, but I liked the ideas I had of potential upcycles. As it turned out, the material was very warm despite being such a lightweight fabric, so it was too hot to wear here in the tropics.

File 13 all wardrobe ideas!

It spent a while hanging on the laundry hanger, haunting me, until I realized it would make a fine cushion cover! Yeah!

As I still haven't got my sewing machine working, I serged the sections and then hand stitched a line of sewing inside the serge line for extra strength. Talk about dedication, right?

Due to the armscye, the positioning was forced to be right at the end of the shirt, which left me short a button and buttonhole on the finished product. I didn't want to unpick the thing just to add one. When I looked at it, though, I figured I could just sew a button on in the right place so that it looked right, but skip the buttonhole. The buttons were not really necessary, just a nice touch to aid removing the cover for cleaning. So I sewed one onto the carefully measured (finger-width transfer) spot, and it worked just fine. 

Monster Kitty Quality Control Service was in full swing the whole time. I tried distracting her with food, a cuddly snooze spot, a dedicated period of personal attention... but no, she followed me everywhere giving me the Filthy Look Treatment. 

"Why are you working on this when you should be giving me rubs?"

"Hmmm... soft enough, but a bit bigger perhaps?"

Eventually I managed to wrest the finished product out from under the Wrath of Khan Kitty and tucked it into place on the loveseat. No, I didn't make the Angry Birds cushion, it was a Valentine's gift for Himself, and I love it. Perhaps I'll try to make the other Birds and a Piggy.

Now to start on the bigger cushions. :)