Kevin and Olivia’s ivory silk ring pillows weren’t too hard to construct once I figured out what I wanted them to be. Each pillow was 8 inches square, wrapped once around in a feather edge ribbon, topped with artificial magnolia flower petals and secured with a flat, silk-covered button. The rings, one for each pillow, were attached with a narrow velvet ribbon. Here’s a reminder of what they looked like:
And, thanks to Tinou, here they are in action! The ring bearers are soooo adorable.
image from Tinou
Here’s the how-to for one 8×8 inch ring pillow.
Materials:
I bought my materials from a few different places, but most of the materials can be found at your basic crafts/fabric shops such as Jo-Ann Fabrics or Beverly’s, if you have one of those near you.
- Pillow
- 2 squares of 9×9 inches ivory dupioni silk
- 16″ length of 3/8″ wide feather edge ivory satin ribbon
- 12″ length of 1/4″ wide violet velvet ribbon
- 2″ square scrap of ivory dupioni silk
- 2″ square scrap of lightweight cotton or featherweight interfacing
- 7/8″ flat cover button
- cream white faux magnolia flower
- flat faux pearl bead
Tools:
- Sewing machine
- Hot glue gun
- Hand sewing needle (to attach button) and ivory thread
- Scissors
Steps to make:
1) Take apart the faux magnolia flower and cut out individual petals
This flower separated by removing the plastic stamen (the center tip) of the flower and simply pulling all the layers apart. Cut the trio of petals into individual ones. Snip off the thick bottom portion of each petal to remove excess bulk. If you skip this step, you may find it difficult to hand sew the button onto the flower.
2) Trim 5 of the petals into a smaller size
Cut out a piece of paper to use as a template for the smaller flower petal. For each petal, fold the petal in half lengthwise, place your paper template on top of it and trace around the shape. Then, with the petal still folded in half, trim the petal to size. Repeat until you have 5 small petals.
3) Create the bottom layer of the flower
Start with the larger petals. Stack one petal on top of another to create a pair of petals, allowing the bottom petal to peek out slightly from the top. Using your hot glue gun, squeeze a dab of hot glue onto the lower tip of the bottom petal. Place the top petal back into position, and hold the two petals in place for a few seconds to allow the glue to set. Repeat this for the remaining 4 pairs of petals.
Finish off the bottom layer by stacking one pair of petals on top of the other to create a circle of 5 pairs of petals. Insert a drop of hot glue in the center of the circle, between each stack.
Here’s what it looks like from the back (oooh):
4) Create the top layer of the flower
The top layer of petals contains only single petals, so you’ll simply place a dab of hot glue on the lower tip of one of the bottom pairs of petals, then lay a small petal on top of the large pair. Repeat this for each of the 5 small petals.
Since the couple’s colors were lavender and green, I decided to add the little green leaves back onto the flower. The edges of this piece had a bit too much brown in it, so I trimmed that off as much as I could without making it too uneven. Then I hot glued that puppy right on!
5) Create the silk-covered flat button
Cut out the circular template on the back of the flat button package. Take your scrap of silk and lay it on top of some featherweight interfacing (I fused mine but it’s not necessary), trace a circle onto the silk from your template and cut the circle out.
Center the flat side of the cover button onto the back side of your silk-and-interfacing layers. Here, the cover button instructions say to use a pencil eraser to push the fabric onto the teeth of the cover button. I don’t know about you, but I can never get this to work. So I cheat and use the rubber mold that comes in the regular (i.e. non-flat) 7/8″ cover button kits. Place your silk, interfacing and button on top of the rubber mold. Push them down into the rubber mold, keeping the button centered onto the fabric. NOW you can push the fabric towards the center, put the back cover onto the button and follow the rest of the instructions which say to use a spool of thread to help you snap the back cover onto the button. PHEW!
Pop this out and you have a lovely, matching silk button.
I think I’d better stop here for now so I can drop off my latest orders at the post office before the first pickup! But by now you’ll have your pillow embellishment all ready to go, and all you have left is to sew up the pillow and attach all the fixin’s!
