diy project: ring pillows.

Tonight I made my ring pillows! They turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. Here's a tutorial in case any of you other brides out there feel like taking on yet another crafty project.

You will need:

Two 8" x 8" square pieces of the fabric of your choice (I used teal taffeta)

Scissors or a rotary cutter and self-healing mat

Ruler

Needle and coordinating thread

Sewing machine

Stuffing (I used Polyfill)

One DIY flower (or more if you like)

Instructions:

1. Cut two 8" x 8" squares from your fabric.

2. Pin right-sides of squares together on all sides.3. Machine sew around edges of square using a 5/8" seam allowance, leaving about a 3" opening on one of the sides for turning. 4. Sew box pleats on all four sides, 1" from each corner. (You may omit this step if you want a regular pillow with pointy corners). To do this, pinch the fabric near a corner to separate the two layers. Match up the seam to ensure your pleats will align. Fold seam allowance to each side and pin into place. A trick that I use to get the seams to match up perfectly is to stick a pin through the seam at the 1" mark, making sure it goes through the seam on each side. Place a pin through all layers of fabric slightly higher than this mark and slightly lower than this mark. Machine sew perpendicular to the seam allowance at the 1" mark.

When finished, cut the excess fabric about 1/4" from the new seam. Repeat on the remaining three sides.

5. Turn pillow right-side out through the opening in the side. This is what your box pleats should look like after turning.

6. Fill pillow with stuffing. To avoid lumps, separate stuffing into tiny pieces before filling pillow. Make sure you fill the corners and the sides adequately, and try to smooth out the pillow before you move on to the next step. It is a lot harder to get the lumps out once the pillow is sewn shut!

7. When pillow is adequately stuffed, slip stitch the opening closed.

8. Your pillow is finished! Now let's make it pretty!

9. Take your DIY flower and place it on the top of the pillow where you would like it to be located. Tie a double strand of thread on your needle and start tacking down the flower. It's easiest if you fold the petals over at first and start by securing the base of the flower to the pillow. Then you can tack down a few of the bottom petals so it doesn't move around as much. When you think it is secure, tie a knot in your thread and trim the ends. Arrange the petals of the flower how you would like it to look.

10. You're finished. Admire your pretty new ring pillow!

Note: You can also sew a ribbon into the center of the flower or underneath the flower in order to tie your rings (fake rings of course) onto the pillow.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial! As always, let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to help you!

All photos are my own.