Memory Pillows

I was very honoured to receive a commission from Tamsin through my Wix website (although it turns out we met at Boondocks a few years ago!) to create a cushion out of her Granddad’s cardigan and also to make some mini memory pillows out of the off cuts to give to family members to hang on their Christmas trees! Such a lovely, personal, and sentimental idea, which I was thrilled to be able to accept.

I went a head and bought a 16″ square cushion and worked around the idea of keeping as much of the front as possible, so I decided to use the original zip as the opening for the cushion cover and place a panel underneath to cover the cushion exposed by the neckline. I measured and cut a front and back panel out of the shoulder section so they were already joined and added the panel over the top and stitched the three sides together.

I asked Tamsin about the collar, as it would have looked excellent stood up or neatly stitched down with the rest of the cushion, but as it was a main feature I wanted to make sure she would like it…

In the end she went for the stitched down approach, so it looked more like a cushion than a cardigan and the final outcome was one filled with memory and comfort.

I then started cutting out small 8cm squares from the excess cardigan, patching together the different colours and features, like the cream cuffs, the zip, the ribbed pockets and the Icelandic pattern.

To construct the decorations, I simply placed the two squares rights sides together, and stitched around 3 sides of the shape, catching a loop of maroon ribbon in one corner, then stuffing them with some high grade hollow fibre stuffing and hand stitching the opening closed…

All in all, I was able to make 22 little memory pillows out of the off cuts and I am very proud with how they turned out. I hope Tamsin’s family are as pleased with them as I am – what a lovely reminder of a loved one at Christmas time.