To rest our rings on

I've previously written about my attempt to make a beautiful, Martha Stewart ring pillow. At least, the flower part.

The flower still isn't finished, but I did finish the part of the project I totally understand: the pillow!

Sure, I could have just bought a pillow somewhere, but I was at Jo-Ann fabrics with Mr. Oyster, when he mentioned the remnants section. Despite my owning a sewing machine and actually knowing how to sew, Mr. Oyster is the one that visits Jo-Ann quite a bit, usually for his art projects or for his students. How could I not have remembered the remnants?! And so, this is the story of how I made a ring pillow for about $5.

I found a 23" scrap of some cheap muslin, bought a little bag of fiberfill, and scraps of some beautiful mauve pin-tucked satin. And did I mention... the remnants were half off that day!

The pillow itself was the easiest part. I used a piece of printer paper folded in a square as a "pattern," and sewed this sucker together, turned it inside out, stuffed it with fiberfill, and basted. Et voila! A pillow. Here it is with a pair of fabric scissors on it so you can see the size; it's an 8 1/2" square (because that is the width of printer paper).

Now, on to the pillowcase. I didn't use a pattern for this, either; I just turned the satin inside out, put the pillow on it, and drew with a pencil. I used two pieces of fabric for the back, because I wanted the pillowcase to have a pocket. Also, having a removable pillowcase will make it easier when I attach the Martha Stewart flower.

So, I put the pillow in the case, and there you go! I tried valiantly to match the pintucks; I failed miserably but guess what -- no one will know. I love my $5 remnant pillow! (Sorry for the different colors; it's irridescent and a trick of the lighting.)

I am proud of this pillow, mostly because (a) I didn't plan on making it, but it turned out to be so unexpectedly easy and (b) I love a good deal.

DIY and the Dead Fly

Despite my insistence that I'm not a DIY type of girl, I find myself doing a lot of things for this wedding myself. Among my projects is the Martha Stewart flower pillow.

I love this pillow, and from the moment I saw it I knew I wanted one for my wedding! I have a little sewing experience and this seemed like a project I could do.

For inspiration, I studied carefully the diagrams and tutorial over at Martha Stewart, which boasts this beautiful example:

Then I also read the more explicit tutorial of Mrs. Perfume, whose mother helped her with this beautiful one:

I picked up some remnant fabric at Joann's to practice with, and set to work with my little sewing kit. Here was some of my inspiration while I worked:

Didn't you know? Michael provides the perfect sewing music.

First, I cut out those ovals just as Martha described: ovals with straight sides. Mr. Oyster pointed out that they look a lot like my little mouse, so I put them side by side. Twins!

Then, I got my sewing kit and went to work, following all the directions. I cut my little ovals out, and instead of pinching them with wire, I stitched them through the middle.

Then I started sewing them together. But I noticed something odd. Where the directions said there should be no gaps, there were plenty. And this didn't look like a flower at all! It was a weird, floppy thing. I tossed it onto my keyboard and noticed that it looked.... like a dead fly!

Mr. Oyster came over to see, and when I described it to him he immediately began holding it through the air, buzzing around with it. Guys!

Anyway, I quickly saw what my problem was: the ovals were too straight and too long. They really need to be more like circles. Why doesn't Martha say this? Wait, who am I kidding?! It wouldn't be a Martha project without some frustration.

So I cut out some new ovals.

These were quite a bit smaller (and the flower tends to get smaller as you add petals to it), so it was harder to sew. Still, there was an instant improvement.

And for good measure, we checked -- it's cat-approved!

Anyone else need multiple attempts at your DIY projects before you were satisfied with them?