My customer sent a shirt that was precious to her. We talked about some aspects of what she wanted done with the shirt. But it is often hard to know what I am dealing with until I receive the shirt. I was surprised at how worn the shirt was. It was threadbare!

The shirt belonged to her grandfather and was very special to her. She asked me to make two pillow covers – one for her mom and one for herself. She came up with the idea that I could separate the two sides of the front and sew it to one half of the back, so that I could create two “fronts” from the entire shirt. She even had the idea to add purchased pearl snaps to the left side so that it would still look like the front of the shirt.

She asked that I embroider two special messages. Since I now only had one real pocket, I used a cotton fabric for the backing and for a faux pocket where I put her special messages.

I was afraid to work with the fabric because it was so thin. To strengthen it, I interfaced it with a fusible, woven interfacing – shirt tailor, I believe. I also added a fusible fleece interfacing.

She also wanted a clutch, although she said she might be afraid to use it.

It was a challenge to work with the fabric, but I think we achieved our goals.

If you are interested in having a memory pillow or clutch made, please contact me.