Sew a small pillow - PEP BB textile.sand.pillow

Jennifer Richardson wrote:I sometimes like to stuff cushions with fabric scraps from sewing, rags that have disintegrated, yarn trimmings, etc. If I used cotton/wool/linen scraps, would this be an acceptable natural stuffing? Or might the requirements be expanded to include reusing/repurposing old synthetic stuffing materials? I think this is a pretty good way to sequester the stuff, which is hard to figure out what to do with.

Okay - that is acceptable.

Yeah! This is the last one I had to do to get the Textiles Badge!
I made a pillow out of an old T-shirt and filled it with wool.


Fluffying up the wool for filling the pillow


Cutting a square out of a T-shirt (once belonging to my late husband)


Sewing the sides, except for a part to turn it and get the wool in


Filling it with wool


All wool is in it


Closed the opening and it's ready

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Yeah! This is the last one I had to do to get the Textiles Badge!
I made a pillow out of an old T-shirt and filled it with wool.

Yay!!! Just post in https://permies.com/wiki/101129/pep-textiles/PEP-Badge-Textiles with links to each of the Textile Badge Bits you've done, and we'll get you your first sand badge!!!

I made a small pillow out of black&white cotton twill fabric. For the filling, I used some recycled buckwheat hulls. Hulls were sealed in a cotton insert first so it would be easier to clean the pillow later on. I also installed a invisible zipper on the side. Finished pillow measured 14 by 18 inches.

Missed one pic about construction. I first sewd the seams and finished edges with a overlocker.

Since reclaimed fabric is allowed to be used to make the case for the pillow, would reclaimed stuffing be allowed to be used as well? I have a ratty old pillow that I'm pretty sure is stuffed with polyester, but I think taking that stuffing and using it for another pillow would be better than sending it to a landfill. Same with acrylic yarn and polyester fabric that were gifted to me or that I purchased before I learned about permaculture - I don't want to use them to make anything I'd actually wear and since they're basically plastic they make terrible rags, so I think chopping them up and using them to stuff a pillow would be a reasonable way to sequester the plastics from polluting other things. Would that be a valid way of completing this BB?

Jinn Girardot wrote:Since reclaimed fabric is allowed to be used to make the case for the pillow, would reclaimed stuffing be allowed to be used as well? I have a ratty old pillow that I'm pretty sure is stuffed with polyester, but I think taking that stuffing and using it for another pillow would be better than sending it to a landfill. ...

Hi Jinn. That's a question I had in my mind too. I decided not to do it for the pillow I made for this BB. But in other cases I do use reclaimed stuffing often.

Jinn Girardot wrote:Since reclaimed fabric is allowed to be used to make the case for the pillow, would reclaimed stuffing be allowed to be used as well? I have a ratty old pillow that I'm pretty sure is stuffed with polyester, but I think taking that stuffing and using it for another pillow would be better than sending it to a landfill. Same with acrylic yarn and polyester fabric that were gifted to me or that I purchased before I learned about permaculture - I don't want to use them to make anything I'd actually wear and since they're basically plastic they make terrible rags, so I think chopping them up and using them to stuff a pillow would be a reasonable way to sequester the plastics from polluting other things. Would that be a valid way of completing this BB?

Thanks for bringing that up.

I changed the first post to say that it must be natural materials.  Any badges above this post that have already qualified and used the old standard still stand.  But any from here on, need to be 100% natural materials.

There are lots of reasons for this, but my personal reason is that synthetic materials break down over time and working with reclaimed synthetic materials puts a lot of toxic particles in the air.  I know too many weavers and seamstresses who have lung damage from working with these materials.

But also, I asked Paul and he said that he wants to encourage organic or better solutions.  Upcycling synthetic materials has the benefit of keeping them out of the landfill, but it still means we have these materials adding toxins to our living environment.  So, yes you can make pillows out of reclaimed materials, but for the badge, it needs to be a natural material.

When I cut the fabric to 13" squares, I left a tab or flap that would tuck inside and sequester the wool while I stitched it closed.

Requirements:
 - stuffed with a natural material: wool
 - Fabric must be a natural material: cotton - navy and lace
 - ~12 x ~12 inches flat or 10" stuffed
 - Serged on three (and a half) sides with a wide opening that was hand-stitched using a ladder stitch to close the pillow.

Material is recycled from an old sheet, which I think was cotton. I’m liking the buckwheat hulls as a filling, though maybe not for sleeping on.