No-Sew Tea Towel Pillow

No-Sew Tea Towel Pillow

Make: 1

Materials:
1. Tea Towel – 20″ x 28″ size
2. Rectangle Throw Pillow Insert – 20″ x 12″
3. Eyelets -5/32″ [3.97mm],28 pcs [Dritz Silver tone Eyelets 5/32" (3.97mm) 100 pk refill]
4. Ribbon, rope, lace or anything you want to use to fasten the pillow.

Tools:
1. Eyelet tool or eyelet plier [Dritz- 104 Eyelet Tool or Dritz- Pliers Kit]
2. Hammer [if you are using eyelet too instead of plier]
3. Erasable fabric marker
4. Awl
5. Rod that is about 5mm in diameter, I used 5mm knitting needle
6. Tacky glue [Aleene's Original "Tacky" Glue-4 Ounce]
7. Toothpick
8. Adhesive tape (optional)

Finished Dimension: approx. 20″ (W) x 12″ (H)

Remark: don’t use scissors to cut hole for single-piece eyelet installation, the fabric will get weaken by the broken threads and start fraying, thus the hole will become bigger and the eyelet won’t stay well there.

5/32″ [3.97mm] eyelets with the correct eyelet tool or plier. You will need 28 eyelets but spare more in case you need to redo the installation.
The tea towel is around 20″ x 28″. If you can’t find the exact size, it is ok to get a tea towel that is slightly bigger by 1 or 2 inches. Smaller tea tower is not recommended unless you use smaller pillow insert.
Prepare and get ready the rest of the materials and tools.

Mark 14 eyelet positions on each long side of the tea tower with erasable fabric marker.
If you are using 28″ length tea towel, mark 1″ from the short length edges, then 2″ between eyelets.
If you are using different length which is slightly bigger, say L, then deduct 2 x A, where A = 1″, then divide the balance with 13, you will get more than 2″. By mathematics formula, it is:
B = (L – 2A)/13

Poke through the towel with a sharp awl at the marking, without breaking the fabric threads.

Enlarge the hole with a 5mm rod, I used 5mm knitting needle.

No thread is broken, they were pushed to the side.
Even if it is broken a little, no worry, it can be rescued by placing a small drop of glue to glue it back to the tea towel while stop it from going further.

Put some tacky glue at the back of the eyelet, with tooth pick.

Carefully insert the eyelet stud through the hole, insert the eyelet from right side.
Be careful the groves at the stud edge, they are thread catcher. Use the awl to free the caught threads if necessary.
Repeat the process to put in all eyelets.

Crimp the eyelet with the eyelet installation tool or the eyelet plier.

The crimped eyelet at the back.

The crimped eyelet at the front.

Complete all 14 eyelets at each side, 28 eyelets in total.

Fold the tea towel with 2 eyelets overlapping at the end edges. Align the eyelets in all layers.
Tape the ribbon end with adhesive tape so that it can go through the eyelets easily.

Insert the ribbon into the top eyelet and out from the bottom eyelet, start from the first eyelet of the tea tower (refer photo) which is now on the overlapping fold.
Repeat the lacing through the eyelets, always goes in from top and come out from bottom. From center to bottom, then go up to top then come back to center.

Tie the ribbon at the center to make a bow.

Repeat the same to the other side.

Put the pillow insert into the no-sew tea tower pillow case.
~~ DONE ~~

{More photos and story on Page 1.}