I truly never thought I would turn a rug into a DIY pillow, yet here I am! I bought this cotton rug on clearance for $4 sometime last year. My original intention was to use it in our closet, but it didn’t work as I thought. I’ve literally looked at it every day since, wondering what to do with it. My first thought was to hang it on a wall to make a tapestry, but I didn’t have a good place for it. Then, one day it hit me: I can make it into a DIY rug pillow!
I immediately grabbed a pillow I had on hand and wrapped the rug around it to see if my idea would work. It was already cuter than I expected, so on I went creating my DIY rug pillow.
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How to Make a DIY Rug Pillow
Items Needed:
- Hand-Knotted Rug (see suggestions below!)
- Pillow Insert or Filling (or old pillow that needs a new cover)
- Heavy Duty Sewing Needle
- Thread (preferably to match your rug, but okay if not)
- Sewing Pins
1. Start with a Hand-Knotted Rug
The key to making a pillow out of a rug is the rug must not have a backing on it. You want a hand-loomed rug made of natural materials. Mine is a 100% cotton rug that measured 2’3″ x 3’6″ to give me a rectangular pillow.
I rounded up some similar styles and rugs I think would make beautiful pillows below:
- Pretty Floral-Patterned Cotton Rug: https://amzn.to/3CrnGY7
- Hand-Knotted Rug in Multiple Colors and Patterns: https://amzn.to/3wqXwka
- Colorful Throw Rugs: https://amzn.to/3woBjD
- Set of 2 Moroccan Tassel Rugs: https://amzn.to/3TbNdKQ
- Cotton Throw Rug in Black or White: https://amzn.to/3pCXuBV
2. Determine the Size of Your DIY Rug Pillow
There are two things that will determine the dimensions of your rug pillow: 1) the size of your rug and 2) the size of your pillow insert. For my rug, I decided to use an existing pillow that needed a new cover, so I based my measurements off that. If you are stuffing your pillow yourself, then you can make it any size, however, it might help to still base it off an existing pillow. My finished pillow is about 16 x 24 inches.
3. Test Fit Your Rug Around the Pillow and Pin in Place
My grandma was a seamstress and she made sure I knew how awful it was when patterns don’t align at the seam. I owe this important tip to her… Test fit your rug pillow and do your best to have the pattern in the pillow align at the seams so it looks intentional. I made my pillow with an overlapping flap, so I test fit my rug around my pillow insert from both sides to see which lined up the best. To my luck, one direction had the pattern lined up perfectly. Once you have your pillow seams lined up, flip your rug over so it’s inside out, then pin in place.
4. Hand Stitch Your Rug
I did a simple rough stitch to start. The goal here is to get the basic shape in place and make sure everything lines up how you want it. We will perfect the seams later. I didn’t have enough pins, so I used some masking tape to make sure I sewed a straight line. To do this rough stitch, tie a decent size knot in the end of your thread (I tripled mine) and stitch straight through the fabric to one side and then back through to the other until you fully attach both sides of your rug, then tie it off with another good knot. Depending on the rug, it can take a bit of pressure to push the needle through, so I recommend using a heavy duty needle and have patience with it so you don’t poke yourself! Once your rough stitching is done, turn it right side out again and check how your pillow aligns.
5. (Optional) Cut off Excess Material
I didn’t have a lot of excess, so I skipped this step when making my DIY rug pillow. However, if you have a lot of excess fabric beyond the seams of your pillow, you can trim that off before stuffing and finishing your pillow. I also cut the tassels off one side of my rug since those would have ended up inside my pillow.
6. Do an Invisible Stitch for Perfect Seams on Your DIY Rug Pillow
Take me back to my middle-school home economics class because that’s where I learned this trick! An invisible stitch (aka ladder stitch) is the ideal way to sew up a pillow without having showing seams. On thinner fabrics, you would have the edges with a little extra folded over itself so you can sew into the folded crease in the fabric which hides the thread while making a tight stitch. However, with a rug I did this a bit different.
Since my rug fabric is so thick, I just didn’t poke my needle all the way through the fabric before redirecting it back the other direction. This allowed me to grab onto the fabric without my thread showing through on my pillow. I stitched through the fabric about a centimeter on one side before returning to the other side to do the same. I sewed all three open sides of my top flap down first. Then did this same stitch over the remaining rough stitch I had from Step 4 just to clean up those seams.
That’s it! This project took me a few hours to complete at a really lazy pace. I found it quite relaxing actually, so I just let myself enjoy the process instead of rushing through it. Now I have a cute, one-of-a-kind tassel pillow!