twenty odd days to go... DIY ring bear pillow

I am in work my ass mode right now. There are about twenty some odd days until my wedding and I have so much to do! Today I decided to make a ring bling pillow. I am using robert kaufman fabric that was used to create my wedding invitations.

First measure out your fabric. I chose to stack up three layers of fabric together and cut them all at the same time. Two layers were a natural colored muslin, and the top layer is the fabric I am using to tie in the whole floral and poppy theme.

Fold your 3 layers of fabric corner to corner until you have a triangle shape. The right side of the fabric will be your inside layer. Pin and stitch the folded edge with a straight stitch on your sewing machine. You will stitch one half, cut the edging off with pinking shears, and then fold the opposite corners of the square and stitch that folded edge. Why? It gives the pillow the illusion of being quilted of pieced together from many pieces of fabric.

Here is a picture of what the squares will look like. they are all stitched together across. Now its time to put your square together. Be sure to pin your fabric together, right side of fabric facing the other. You will then stitch all around the square, but be sure to leave yourself a stuffing hole.

Turn pillow inside out and iron down. The stuff with a polyfil. I like to pull the fill apart several times before stuffing, it gets the fibers separated and prevents clumping. You could use a pillow insert by modifying how far around you have stitched, but I find the polyester stuffing allows me to used as much or as little fill as I like. After filling the pillow to your desired thickness, fold the exposed edges in, and pin. Then stitch on your sewing machine.

I, personally like a very tailored look when I sew, so not only did I stitch the hole shut, but then I went all the way around the pillow. Go slowly, because your machine will want to fight you on it. Next I added a button to the middle of the pillow to give it the gusted look, however the button I found was too gold, so I painted a light lilac with some nail polish and let it dry for about five minutes. Then your ready to get sewing by hand.

Sewing by hand is easy, but its just more time consuming. I used a pretty thick thread, knotted the end, and found the middle on the back of my pillow. I slipped a satin ribbon under the button, to sew it in placed and made about 5 or 6 stitches from front to back and repeat.

After some hand work, you have yourself a finished pillow. The pillow has a nice "quilted" top and makes it look like you spent all this time piecing together squares. I can't wait to use it for the big day. Tomorrow we tackle the guest book. Check back.

hook em up

My first granny square / criss cross blanket. I really think the colors work well together. I am wondering how big to make it. I am playing around with a lacy edge but I think I might start to crochet it up again thick once I do all four colors in the lacy chains.

1 down...249 to go...

I found this fantastic tutorial for fabric invitations on merriment design.

 http://www.merrimentdesign.com/sewn-half-flower-loose-leaf-fabric-wedding-invitations-with-fabric-backs.php

absolutely stunning, after I saw this I knew I just had to make these for the wedding. I calculated our guest list. We are going to be expecting around 400 hundred people, and I figured I would have to make around 250 invitations to be safe, in case I have any mess ups or people come out of the wood work at the last minute.

I found this awesome fabric on ebay from a seller called fancymoon fabric shop. Take a peak at how they are coming out so far.

 this is a swatch of the fabric. I used a fusable webbing to make sure that my flowers do not fray.

I cut the flowers out, I really like that there is a black outline. Monica put it best, "you like it because it looks like something you would draw"...how true.

I ordered purple pearlescent paper from www.paperandmore.com Their prices were great, and I was able to get everything I needed. Order should be here on Monday.. then sew sew sew....

Finished corner. I have so many different cut outs of the flowers, you could probably tell from the fabric pattern. I love that each one will be kind of one of a kind in a way. I bought some gold embroidery thread at Joanns, I think it gives them an added sparkle. I love me some sparkle!!

As I make more, I'll post a snap shot of all of the styles I was able to make.. Thanks Merriment for the tutorial :)

lazy summer days

I decided to go through all of my "social network sites" and delete all of the ones that I haven't used in a while. I think swallowkisses had a myspace, but I can't remember what my password is, so I will have to try to delete that, otherwise, most of my happenings I will post on this blogger.

whats with the playbird? It was a street sign I saw on our trip to green bay in june. It's not too far from lambeau field. Kinda stuck.