Reimagined No-Sew Rustic Pillows

In case you missed it, our RV was recently hit by a semi-truck at a rest stop on our way to Colorado, that then proceeded to drive away. That accident left us stranded at a rest stop in Kansas for 8 nights. Not exactly what we had in mind for our journey out West, but on the bright side I did finish up a no-sew pillow. One more project to mark off my to-do list, yay!

Reimagined No-Sew Rustic Pillows

If you’re looking to create or update existing pillow covers sans sewing machine, liquid stitch may be just what you need. With it you can create designs as simple or complex as you can imagine.

But let’s back up a minute…

Before we began traveling in our RV, and before our RV renovation was finished up, I created a few boho-inspired pillows for our sofa. This was around April of 2015.

While they were fun and easy to make, they never quite felt like “me”. I think I was more influenced by trends and also felt challenged to make them after being unable to find anything similar nearby. I have no problem with trends, but over the past couple years I’ve been practicing being intentional with my purchases and projects. Do I like the boho, tassel look? Sure! Do I love it? Not so much.

Here’s a photo showing the boho-inspired pillows:

The one thing I did love about the pillows was the white linen fabric I found on clearance at JoAnn’s, which my mom used to create the pillow covers.

When you’re out shopping for decor or about to begin a new project, try to determine if it’s something you LOVE vs. like, and if it’s something you’ll want to keep around for a couple years. Luckily, pillows are easy to switch out so if you decide to change them up later on, it’s not as huge of an investment. Looking for tips on how to create a space you love? Check out this post!

A couple months into our RV journey I decided to remove the embellishments I had added to the pillow covers, and replace them with a new design. This left some remnants of glue behind, but I figured I’d just have to create a design around those funky glue areas. Again, I loved the linen pillow covers my mom created and wanted to find a way to still make them work in our RV.

Then Christmas rolled around so I set these pillow covers aside and created a couple rustic holiday pillows.

Let the re-imagining begin…

Finally during our stay in Florida, before one of our updated RV tours, I decided it was time to update the pillows… or at least one of them.

Materials Used 

• Linen Pillow Covers – these are similar
• Liquid Stitch – I recommend having at least one 1.25 fl oz tube per pillow so you have more than enough
• Scissors
• Twine

You can see the glue residue marks on the pillow cover below, which is where I had removed the black tassel fringe.

It was a spur of the moment project, in less than 30 minutes I had added two colors of twine to the pillow cover using liquid stitch. I made the design up as I went along, using the previous glue residue as a guide. It was fun to get creative without thinking too much about it, and I loved the results.

The grey and wheat color twine added texture and contrast to the pillow, and provided a simple, rustic vibe. Best of all, I used materials I already had on hand.

I don’t know how the heck 5 months passed so quickly, but somehow it did and my second pillow wasn’t done. Woops.

I had snagged a couple green velvet pillows from World Market for $6 each after Christmas and those are what have been sitting on our sofa ever since. I liked the color and the texture, but wanted something more neutral for the space. I just needed to finish up my second pillow.

It was time to make time for my pillow project.

And while we were stranded at that Kansas rest stop, I finally did just that.

Twine it up

Here’s what my second pillow cover looked like after I had removed the previous embellishments, which I did slowly but firmly.

I had some ideas in mind for the pillow but decided just to give it a go, and see where the twine took me.

I used a variation of twine, but you can stick to one or use more colorful options.

The first thing I did was insert a piece of cardboard into the pillow cover, to make sure none of the glue leaked through.

Next I added liquid stitch to the section I was working on, spread it around a little bit with my finger (you can use a craft brush you don’t mind messing up) and pushed my twine onto it. Every so often I would add a little more glue.

It was a little messy so you may want to wear gloves. I didn’t mind the messy part of it, in fact it was kind of fun.

This time I decided to use one continuous piece of twine for my rows vs. single cut pieces like I had on my first pillow. If you plan to add multiple rows of the same color twine, I recommend doing it this way too. It was much easier and the ends looked a bit cleaner.

I already had a bunch of strips cut, and you can see from the image below where I ran out of my continuous piece of gray twine and had to then add the single strands of twine to the bottom. After they were all glued down, I cut off the excess with scissors.

Next I started adding the thicker twine to create a “t” shape. I used my fabric tape measure to get it centered before adding my liquid stitch and pressing it down.

I was pretty low on gray twine at this point so I tried to add it where I could. At this point I’m just playing around with the twine. Cutting pieces and adding it here or there.

Once finished I also added more twine to my first pillow, so the “weight” in both pillows would be similar, even though the designs were different.

Perfectly Imperfect

Here are my finished twine pillows. They may be perfectly imperfect but I absolutely LOVE how they turned out and feel like they make our RV feel more cohesive vs. the green pillows I previously had on the sofa. Although I’m sure you’ll see those pop up now and again.

So what do you think?

Here’s the before and after of my no-sew rustic pillows:

Have you used liquid stitch for any no-sew projects? Let us know your experience in the comments below!

Looking for additional pillow ideas? Check out my boho pillows, rustic plaid pillows, kilim-inspired pillow, and placemat pillows!