Upcycling a t-shirt into a denim cushion

The Brief - take a T-Shirt belonging to shopping TV giant Nigel May featuring 80's icon Kim Wilde and make it into a usable item ( in this case a cushion).
Guidance offered - make it fabulous! Well obviously....

Finished item!

Requirements

• T-shirt featuring 80's music icon
• Iron on stabilizer
• Denim/old jeans
• zip
• Thread - I used Gutermann Jeans Thread

Method

First I stabilized the back of  the t-shirt because it is super stretchy! I used an iron on medium weight stabilizer because I needed it to hold up well against the denim. I cut out the design leaving a generous seam allowance. The placement of the sleeves meant that I had to curve the top edge, otherwise a straight top would have removed the top of Kim's head and we cant have that! 

I cut my square of denim 3 inches larger than the cushion pad because I wanted a frayed 'rock chick' looking edge to the cushion. If you are using recycled jeans simply stitch some bits together until you have a piece large enough to cover your cushions pad plus 3 inches.

I used newspaper to make a template for the hole in the denim so that I could see all off Kim. I made that 1 inch smaller than I wanted the result to be because I wanted to fray those edges too.

I pinned the cut t shirt onto the wrong side of the denim square, with the image face down. I then basted around the edge of the t shirt to hold it in place. I pinned the paper template to the front of the denim and carefully cut through the denim layer only. I didn't cut the denim aperture before adding the t shirt, in case the layers moved and stretched. doing it this way ensured that the t shirt was totally smooth with no puckered edges.

I stitched 2 lines of stitching around the edge of aperture. I used Gutermann Jeans Thread (the orange one) because it compliments the jeans motif. It is also super strong so perfect for heavy jobs like denim. The thread is slightly thicker than normal thread so you may want to use a larger eyed needle. I used my standard jeans needle though, and it worked beautifully. I couldn't use a twin needle because I only had 1 reel of the thread and my machine needs 2 for twin needles. However I just took it slowly and concentrated on keeping the edges parallel.

Parallel Stitching

I then removed the basting stitches.

I prepared my cushion back (you can use an overlap/envelope method or add a zip). Do not use a zip  the whole width of your cushion as you will be cutting the raw edges and you don't want to ends of your zip to show.

When constructing the cushion you have to remember to put the wrong sides together (instead of the right sides). This is because you need the seams to be on the outside so you can snip them! I used 2 lines of stitching again for this. The thread really adds to the jeans effect!

Once my cushion was constructed I began snipping with small sharp scissors. Then I began fraying the edges by pulling bits out. This took HOURS!!! But I love the effect and it matches the rock chick theme. Now the finished cushion has been safely delivered to Nigel May, and I think he likes it :)

Delivered!

It was even appreciated on Twitter by the awesome Kim Wilde herself. Now that's not something that happens every day!