making: t-shirt pillow

A recent purge of my closet resulted in a reasonable pile of t-shirts in the discard pile. However nonsensical it is (considering that if I ever wear a t-shirt it is going to be plain rather than printed) I tend to pick up a fair amount of patterned or printed t-shirts. There are quite a few I have, um, acquired from various travels and while I never wear them I do like the images/patterns and it sort of irked me that I needed to discard them just because I wasn't wearing them. Couldn't I used them for something else?
Then I came up with (or perhaps it was suggested by a wise and crafty person, I don't remember) an idea. Make them into pillows. It is really easy to make a simple slip on pillowcase, no need for zippers or buttons even.

First, cut your t-shirt apart along the seams so you have two pieces of fabric. If the t-shirt is too small for a back and front there are several options. You can create a border with additional fabric, or use the t-shirt only for the front and a different material entirely for the back of the pillow. Whatever works for you.
When you have your fabrics, measure the pillow you will be covering and add one inch to height and width for seam allowances.

You will need to cut one piece for the front, and two for the back. So if your pillow is 15" square, you will need to cut one 16" square for the front and two 15"x10" pieces for the back. Then you will pin one edge of each back piece under and sew it down. This will make the back nice and clean.

Lastly you need to pin the front and two back pieces to each other right sides together. Place the two back pieces with the sewn edges overlapping in the middle by approximately an inch. Pin around the edge and sew.

Then turn the cover right side out and put it over your pillow and you're done.

This should take about fifteen minutes, as there are no buttonholes and no hand sewing, or maybe longer if you have to piece together a front and back. However, it is a quick and easy way to use t-shirts that would otherwise be tossed out. They are still around so you can enjoy the images that drew you to them in the first place, and as they are t-shirts, they are (most likely) soft and very comfortable pillows.