Sewing Project Ideas

The dryer ate my husband's Eagles jersey. Don't worry, it was a $25 knockoff. But now there are large burn holes in the back, right at the butt. Since he's only worn it a few times, he asked me to find a project where we could save the majority  of the shirt.

Here's what I'm working with - both front and back numbers are in tact. The player's name is in tact. The sleeves have an Eagles patch on each one. The sides of the jersey is a mesh fabric.

I searched the internet (hooray for Pinterest!) for some possible upcycle ideas. I narrowed it down to a few choices:

A jersey pillow tutorial is doable. However, I made pillows before and in our house, the dog assumes any sewing project of mine must be a dog toy. The fluffy throw pillows did not last. We put up a valiant fight though, keeping them alive for a few weeks before we left the house and forgot to put them in the closet.

While pillows are a good, low-skill project, we'd have to keep them high on a shelf for display only. Still a possibility for the jersey.

Create a quilt out of old jerseys and tshirts. I love this idea. It's also massively time consuming and I really only have 1 jersey that needs to be recycled. It would be difficult to find something to put in each square. Maybe if we lived closer to Philadelphia and I could pick up old tshirts and sweatshirts from the thrift store.

Anyway, while this is an awesome idea, I may have to rule it out.

I found this awesome blanket from this Etsy shop. I could put the jersey numbers on the back and buy some minky fabric for the front. I'm not sure about doing it in a football shape. That seems like an unnecessary complication when a rectangular blanket would be just as cute.

Minky fabric is pretty expensive though. About $15 per yard. It would cost money to upcycle this jersey, which sorta defeats the point.

Also, I'm not sure how the blanket is secured to the back. It doesn't look quilted. If it's not secured to the back, it gets a little screwy in the washer. Ever wash non-quilted placemats? They aren't quite the same afterward, are they? I'd have the same problem because I don't want to quilt through the jersey numbers. This might be an easy, very cute project, but low in functionality.

Anyway, still looking for ideas to upcycle the burned out jersey. I'm leaning toward the minky blanket until I can find something better. Either way, it's a trip to the fabric store on Friday night! Say it with me now....ooooo fabrics!!!!