How to Make a Quilted Memory Pillow (With a Collar Pillow)

Yesterday, I shared a "How to Photo Tutorial" on making a Quilted Memory Pillow without a collar.

Today, I am sharing how I made my Quilted Memory Pillow with a Collar.


I said this yesterday: 
When I am making something, I take several photos of the construction, instead of writing it down, because I am a visual learner. I need to see it! 

Sometimes I get so caught up in the process of making it, I forget to take photos of each step. I want to share how I make my Quilted Memory Pillows, but it will be all in photos - no words (maybe a few) and I may have missed a few photos, but I am sure you will be able to figure out how to make the quilted memory pillow.

I cut the shirt arms and seams off and trimmed it so the front and back were similar size, but I left the shirt attached at the shoulders. 

Using my regular sewing machine, I stitched the front placket closed, using a zipper foot, so I could stitch on the placket and not hit the buttons. 

I cut a large circle from another part of the shirt and used it in the neck hole by the collar to fill in that space. I used lots of pins to hold it in place as I stitched it. It's a little tricky to do.

You can see in this photo, how I stitched around it just below the plaid collar to hold the circle in place. 

I decided to leave the tag on the collar too. 

Then I brought the shirt to the quilting machine to quilt it. It is kind of awkward as the collar is bulky.

You can see how I quilted up and around the collar. I know it stands up, but it will get stuffed later.

Here is the link to the video on how I quilted the lettering for the message. 

A short video sharing how I quilted (thread painted) the lettering on the #memoryshirtpillow. 

This way it looks like embroidered lettering.

I trimmed it to get it ready to sew into a pillow, but first I had to do a little adjusting and trimming behind the collar, up underneath, so that I could stuff the Poly Fiber Fill in there.

Sorry, no photos of sewing it together. I forgot to take a photo.  After I stitched the pillow on all 4 sides (leaving an opening for turning), I turned it right side out and I hand stitched the bottom opening closed.

There are many memory shirt pillows out there, but I wanted to make it unique by quilting it and by thread painting for the wording.  

My friend, Thankful helped with the wording, the construction idea and we made it work! 

Yes --- I take custom orders on my website at Quilted Memory Pillow.

Quilted Memory Pillows make great gifts for loved ones.

Enjoy your day!

Marcia

If you don't sew or quilt and you are reading this, you can order one from me! Quilted Memory Pillow