DIY: A Pillow For the Ring Bearer

Here's my inspiration post...
....and here are a couple of pictures of our little man.

And just for good measure, here are a couple new ones.

Let's just ignore all the Bronco stuff please.  How my cousin became a Denver fan in a family full of Packers fans is beyond me.  But as you can see, he is already corrupting his son.

Either way, he's still pretty adorable.

And now onto the DIY portion of the post.  Except it's not so much a tutorial, as it is me showing you the finished product, and briefly mentioning how I got there.  I made this so long ago that I didn't think to take pictures of the work in progress.  But here it is.

I cut out two squares in the green material and put them right sides together.  Then I pinned the black piping in between them so the piping part was on the inside, and the unfinished edges showed.  Then I sewed around three sides, and left an opening in the fourth side.  I turned it inside out and stuffed it.  I decided to go this route instead of using a pillow form, because I didn't want it to be too big, and I couldn't find a small enough form that I liked.

Then I cut a strip of black satin to wrap around the entire pillow.  I didn't sew the edges, I just tucked them under so you see the folded edge.  Then I tied the ends in a knot on the front and played around with it, tacking it in place by hand until I was happy with the result. 

Now I just need to decide about putting a bow on it to hold the rings.  I don't think we're going to have him carry the actual rings down the aisle in case something goes wrong and he doesn't make it all the way.  I don't think I really want to have "fake" rings tied onto it either, so I may just leave it how it is and skip the bow entirely.

Price Breakdown:
The green material and black satin were left over from previous projects, so I'm not including the cost.
So basically it just cost me a bag of stuffing which I believe was less than $2.00  If I had it laying around the house it would have been free!  Now there's my kind of project.

What's your opinion on "fake" rings? Do you have your pillow picked out already?

Our Ring Bearer

My cousin just put up new pictures of his son Liam, our ring bearer, on Facebook and I have to share some of them with you.  He's getting so big, so quickly!

How cute is this kid??

Note to self: Actually ask him to be the ring bearer and find a cute way to do it!

A Pillow for the Ring Bearer

Okay, so I think y'all are getting the idea by this point that I don't like to do things the easy, store bought way.  And plain and boring just ain't my style.  So, of course, I'll be making the pillow for our ring bearer to carry down the aisle.

First I want to introduce the little guy to you (or who we're hoping will be our ring bearer-I still need to ask!!).  He is my cousin's son, and so adorable!  He will be around 3 1/2, I believe, by the wedding next year.

Liam

So, ya know, I can't just go with a plain white pillow.  That would be waaay too boring, and I wouldn't get to do anything!  So I started looking for unique alternatives.

I fell in love with this immediately.  It takes the "bear" in ringbearer literally and incorporates a childhood teddy bear.  I started thinking about all the stuffed animals I have stored away at home and if there were any cute little bears that could work, but unfortunately there aren't (I was more of the stuffed puppy kind of kid).  And I think it's cheating to go out and get a new teddy bear for this.  Kinda defeats the purpose.

So although I've given up, I kept the picture around, because it's just so cute!

I like the simplicity of this, while it is still very pretty.  If I were to go this route, I would probably make the pillow green and the bow black to match our colors.  And there are green hydrangeas so I could even make an exact replica if the creative juices aren't flowing!

There are a few things I love about this pillow, beside the fact that it is just gorgeous!  It is made of felt which I think is awesome.  I loooove the sheared edges (correct sewing term? Probably not, but I was too lazy to Google it.)  And the flower is just too cute.

The only thing I'm concerned about is getting carried away and ending up with a pillow that is too girly for my little man to carry down the aisle.  But I'll try and keep myself in line.

A DIY post will follow sometime in the near future, so you guys can see what I come up with!!

Have you guys come up with any unique solutions to the ring bearers pillow??