Up North

I offered to make memory pillows for my daughter in law of course the two pieces of clothing she picked needed interfacing one is a t shirt and one of all things is a sweater. Yikes! what can I use to stabilize the sweater. I would like to be able to order it off the internet as the closest fabric place is 50 miles away.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

Up North

Oh well I ordered something from the internet I hope I can make it work!

bernamom

I am a fairly new quilter, but I think I would sew the sweater to a piece of fabric using the size square you want it to be. Then cut the sweater. That way, it won't unravel. T-shirt, just use a lightweight fusible.

Pennyhal

I've seen those pillow make of what looks like a knitted sweater, but I have no clue how they do it. I think I'd serge the edges somewhere along the way of construction too.

Geri B

Non-woven fusible interfacing...lite is what I have used on t shirt squares, and I think it would work just as well on your sweater. I believe it's a pellon product and I do get mine from JAF. I am actually now using it to make the orange peel blocks from MSQC tute.....

Bree123

For the knit, if you're going to use any stabilizer, I'd consider Pellon 30 Lightweight Stabilizer (though I'm not really sure you need a stabilizer unless either the knit is too thin to the point is might pull apart/become thread bare, or if you plan to quilt the knit fabric).

For the sweater, I definitely would not use a stabilizer. It will make a very uncomfortable pillow having stabilizer on both sides. I've made pillows with knits & ones made entirely from a sweater & have never needed stabilizer. The only thing you do need to consider is that if you are not buying a pillow form, you will want to create one using cheesecloth or the lightest weight muslin you can find. The pillow form will keep the fill from getting caught in the seams or oozing out through any gaps in the sweater's knitting. If the sweater is loosely knit, you will want to make sure to either dye your fabric to match, or pick a fabric color for the pillow form that will coordinate (if it's a dark color, you can go with dark grey or black; if it's a light color, tan or cream will usually work). I use Mountain Mist Fiber Fill for my pillows & it creates a nice fluffy pillow. They do make cotton fill; I just haven't tried it so I can't comment on it. I've made pillows out of all sorts of fabrics & have never done anything with the fabrics before sewing them together except wash, press & cut them.

The only thing I would suggest is to make sure you use a Ballpoint needle in your machine. I always use Gutermann 100% polyester thread when I make my pillows as it comes in lots of colors & gives me a nice strong seam. I use Aurifil cotton for quilting, but pillow seams get more stress on them so I worry about their stability. I set my stitch length to 15+ stitches per inch (1.7mm or less). Fair warning: if you ever need to pick out that seam, it will be unpleasant but the seam will be very strong.

thimblebug6000

Not sure if this little video will help with the sweater, but I googled "making a pillow from a sweater" and thought it was quick and cute! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXr3W_2ma-g

http://www.stonegableblog.com/sweater-pillow-tutorial/

Up North

That made it look super easy, I hope mine turns out just as cute!

Bree123

On that video, she says to do it with curved corners. You can do that if you like the look, but I've done it with pointy corners -- you just have to clip the inside corners before you birth it. Both options look nice so it's up to whatever you like.