Wedding Dress/Daddy Shirt turned Flower Pillows

Yup, it's official...I'm campaigning for "most sentimental schmuck of all" award. It's cool. I've come to accept the face that I cry at Hallmark commercials. If that's not your thing, look the other way, my friend. This post is not for you!

So I mentioned in my original "Flower Pillow First Attempt" post that my original idea was to make a pillow for each of my girls out of my wedding dress... And I've decided it will be the perfect little Christmas present for each of them. I'm also doing all their bedding, but with everything else we've got going on, I'm not sure it's gonna happen before Christmas. Pillows will have to suffice.

After I made my flower pillow, yet more inspiration struck as I was cleaning out my hubby's closet (sshhhh. Don't tell him. He's a clothes hoarder. Seriously, dude has 3x as many outfits as I do.) Anyway, I was about to take one of his tattered white button-up dress shirts to the Goodwill pile downstairs when I passed by my Mom Cave and saw my shredded wedding dress. {{Lightbulb moment}}  Hmmmmm. What if I used daddy's shirt, too!?

Here's my wedding dress after being ripped at every seam (I'm so sorry I don't have one of it before. We were married 9 years ago, and digital wasn't being used much.)

For these particular pillows, I decided to just use a section of the satin fabric of my dress for the flower and then sections of "dad's" shirt for the base of the pillow (strong daddy, frilly mommy, ya know?).

I didn't take a pic of cutting the shirt, but I ended up cutting them 13"x13". I chose the size mainly because I had to get 6 pieces (three pillows) out of one shirt! I ended up even using the areas with button holes. I think it will just add more character. ;)

For the dress, I had to even out a rectangle since the pieces were originally rounded for the dress. I ended up using 7 strips that were 2" wide x 40" long. The satin fabric was VERY strong, and mostly impossible to tear, so I just cut it, and it frayed along the edges nicely with just a little "scuffing" after I finished putting it together.

Now I have to admit that even with my awesome craptastic tutorial on my original flower pillow, it took me awhile to remember what in the world I had done and get in a good groove with this. I'm thinking I'll do a little video when I do one of the other pillows (mostly for my own use since I seem to forget quickly! Ha!).

I wanted something pink to finish off the center (um, duh!), but I wanted it to also be something with meaning. I had been saving a necklace of mine that broke just for crafting purposes, and I thought one of the beads/buttons would be perfect! Each of my girls have had their turn gnawing on that beaded necklace in church (not all in the same day, of course...).

Oh, and I did consider using the buttons off of dad's shirt, but when I tried them out they just got overpowered and lost in all the frill (Imagine that! Go ahead and look for the symbolism...I have to add a LITTLE of my English major background into my crafty blog, right?).

Yup. Perfect. :)

Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka,

Charlie

And participating in some of my other favorite linky parties on my sidebar. ;)