Ring cushion

It's been a little quiet on the wedding DIY front recently as the holidays have meant less work for me and I have therefore used every possible opportunity to earn some money over the last few weeks, and any other free time got used up applying for more permanent roles.

I have not been idle, however. I have now got the DJ's contact details, have emailed him and am yet to hear back from him. I've booked the bridal suite the night before our wedding, so that the groom won't rest an eye on me before the big day. And I've made our ring cushion.

For this, I used some thin satin, which would have been of little use for the dress (a fail-buy, which I didn't want to see going to waste), white cotton thread, invisible nylon thread and a selection of beads - long, metallic, pearls, drop-shaped and diamond-shaped - as well as some toy stuffing and Fraystopper.

After applying Fraystopper around the edges, I cut out two 9 1/2 inch by 9 1/2 inch satin squares and sewed 3 of the edges together on the inside. I then turned the cushion to the right side and attached two beads - the round, metallic one and a see-through plastic one - on either end through the middle of the fabric with the help of the invisible thread. This was to ensure that the cushion would bend towards the middle and hold the rings securely.  I then sewed the rest of the beads in a floral pattern onto only one of the two fabric squares. It would probably have been easier to do this first and then the middle beads, but you live and learn.
The next task was connecting the edges of the last side with cotton thread, being careful to leave a gap for the stuffing, which went into each corner - enough, to make it all cushion-shaped and soft, but not too much to risk the threads bursting. Then I sewed the last bits of the edge together.
All in all, it took me, maybe, three hours to get the cushion done by hand. Hadn't I had a few G+Ts in the process, it may have taken 2, but the beads proved a little more difficult when tipsy.

Anyway, I must slowly get to the point of actually making serious savings. A similar ring cushion in the shop went for about £12 - this one here cost me about £2. I will have to start making a list. The next blog post appears sorted :-)
Though, I am also working on some table decorations, which would start at a minimum of £20 in shops, so we will see.