Turn Your Girl Scouts Vest Into A Pillow!

My daughter will become a Cadette next year.  So, I decided to make her Junior vest into a pillow that she could keep on her bed to remember the memories.  It will end up hanging in the closet just like her Brownie vest if I don’t.  I was searching online for other vests that were turned into pillows.  I found a couple of Daisy vests that were turned into pillows.  The Daisy vest has a rectangle shape already with the sides opened.  I also found Junior vests that were made into pillows that were shaped like a vest.  I didn’t find any that were made into a formal pillow with the white background attached.  The Junior vest is like a regular vest with the front open.  I found out after starting this little project that it definitely wasn’t going to be as quick to turn it into a square-shaped pillow as I thought.  Of course, I didn’t let that stop me.   So, these are the steps to turn your vest into this beautiful square-shaped pillow.

Using a seam ripper, take the front of the vest off.  You will end up having three parts when you finish.  Since the front is open, it will become two parts, plus the back.

Once it is apart, you will use some type of material (sheet, pillowcase, large t-shirt, fabric, etc.) to attach the vest to it.  This is done because we need a square-shape for the pillow.  Make sure that you put the two front parts close together because it will be sewn onto the white material into one.

Pin down the vest parts and stitch down.  When sewing, remember to stitch around the shape of the vest.  It will keep the vest neatly stitched to the white fabric.

The trimming on the sleeve opening will probably come off when you’re first removing the front part from the back.  Make sure that you keep up with it because the material used to make this vest unravels terribly.  So, when I was sewing down the vest on the white material, I had to pin the trimming and sew it down.  This is also a good time to sew on any patches that didn’t get sewn on during the year.  I also took some time to put my daughter’s initials on the back of her vest.  (She’ll like that.)

Trim the edges when you finish sewing the vest down on fabric.  Make sure that you cut the white fabric all the way up into a square shape.

Pin the two facing pieces together to sew down.  ONLY sew the sides together on the sewing machine.  The Top and Bottom will have to be hand-sewn.  I did not sew the bottom together on the machine because the front piece is bigger than the back piece.  The top and bottom pieces will match up better when filled with stuffing.

After sewing down sides, turn over.  Start stuffing the vest.

Pin together the bottom.  See how neatly it lines up now that it’s stuffed.

Now, stitch together the bottom with needle and thread.  Since, this vest is two colors on the bottom, you will need to sew the green part with green thread and then switch to white thread.

Sewing the top of the vest is the most difficult part to do.  Pull together as neatly as possible and repeat the same process with white thread and green thread.  You’re done!

This is a pic of the front of the vest pillow.  My daughter pinned her swaps to the front of her vest pillow.  Loving this pillow!

Have you tried making one of these pillows yet? Did you make yours into a square shape or into the shape of the vest?