Saturday, November 24, 2012

Magical Poufs


As I write this, I'm sitting on the couch with my feet propped on the coffee table on top of a pillow.  That's because our coffee table/chest is wood and wood is hard!  It's quite a functional coffee table but it's not at all comfortable to put your feet on.  So when I saw cube ottomans at one of my favorite stores, The Nest Egg, I was inspired!  The ones at The Nest Egg cost over $300.  Yes $300 for a 2x2x2 cube of fabric and stuffing.  Mind boggling.  I don't even LOOK at the furniture prices, they might make me dizzy.  In their defense, though, they are very well made.  AND they don't squish.  I've seen tons of tutorials for ottomans that squish almost flat to the floor when you sit on them which is definitely something I didn't want.  I also didn't want to spend $300 on a floor cushion.  I was still determined to make these myself I just has to figure out a few things.
1.  I had to figure out how to make them usable as seats.  I'm envisioning people sitting around the coffee table watching football or playing a board game (haha yeah right maybe once a year) or have them as extra seats for the parties I will throw when I have my own place ;) (Congress needs to get off their duff and stop sequestration from happening so I can be financially secure with a good paying job and go buy myself a condo!)  But having them as seats meant that they had to be sturdy enough that people, not children, actual full sized people, could sit on them and they would still be at the same level that the people on the couches were.  And the pouf needed to spring back into place when no one was sitting on it anymore.
2.  I had to figure out how to make it uniformly stuffed, not overstuffed (I was going for a cube shape, not a sphere), and not lumpy.  This actually took the most time.

But I did it!  After weeks of trial and error and many, MANY trips to JoAnn's I FINALLY was happy with the finished product.  It is my magnum opus and I want to share with you how I did it :)

First, I measured out my fabric on the dining room table.  For the pillow's I'd previously made I just cut them on the floor but I wanted to be really precise this time.
So I used one of my old engineering scales (it's weird, I'm an engineer but I only ever use an architect's scale.  Whatever) and a t-square to measure and a pencil to mark my cuts.  This took a looooong time.




I hate prepping I just want to get to the doing!

Alright here are all the pieces I needed.  I determined that I wanted the cubes to be 24"x24" square and 18" tall.  And I wanted to make two cubes.  So I took my fabric (which was the 54" home decorator fabric on the rolls at the fabric store, not the 45" fabric on the bolts) and cut four squares, two rectangles, and four 2" wide strips for the piping.  I allowed for at least 1" of extra fabric for the seams.




You have to measure it out depending on how big you want your cubes to be, but I was able to make these with 4 yards of fabric.  This is how I figured out my yardage:
Top: 22" + 2" seam allowance = 24"
Bottom: 22" + 2" seam allowance = 24"
Side: 22" x 4 sides = 88" + 2" seam allowance = 90"
Top + Bottom + Side = 138"
1 Yard = 3 feet = 36"
Yardage = 138" / 36" = 3.8yds so round up to 4 yards.

You don't need to add yards for the piping.  Since the sides are shorter than the top and bottom are wide (did that make sense?)  you have extra room for the piping.  24" wide compared to 20" tall, so 4" left over to cut two strips 2" wide!




It's all a big puzzle.  When in doubt get more yardage.  This way you won't feel so much pressure to not make a mistake.  And any leftover fabric you have can be turned into pillows!

Whew, it's finally time to start making these things!

First I start with the piping.  I decided to make my own but you can buy yours or make them without any piping at all.  Just personal preference.  If you're making your own, put the piping cord in the middle of the 2" fabric strip, fold the fabric in half and pin it closed right underneath the cord making sure it's tight enough to not slip.




Piping is all pinned.




Then just sew the piping together using a zipper foot so you can get as close to the piping cord as possible.

Then pin and sew the piping to the two tops and two bottoms.




Now here's the tricky part because you're working with a bunch of fabric.  Take the piece of fabric you cut for the sides and start pinning it around the outside of the bottom squares.
 



You'll end up with something looking like this.




You'll want to sew together the side piece that's open, so fold the fabric all pretty and pin the side closed.




When all the fabric is controlled and neat (it takes a bit of wrestling to get it all straight) press down where the piping is and pin along that line.  Since you know the piping is sewn on straight this will allow you to get your seam for the side straight.




Once the side is sewn together, cut a 1" notch at each corner.




See the notch allows the fabric seam allowance to fold over and attach to the top.




This is how I wrestled the shell open so I could attach the top piece.




Now just match the notched corner to the corner of the top piece.




Put the pieces together, pin, and sew!  Only sew two sides of the top piece though.  You'll want to keep two sides open so you're able to stuff it.




Here is the answer to my soft yet shape-retaining dilemma!  It's a 2" thick piece of high density foam.  I got mine at JoAnn Fabric and I got it when it was on a 50% sale (which was good because I needed 8 of them!).



I also used this to wrap the sides and make them look soft.  It's quilting batting and I got the thickest stuff they had.  Thicker = softer in my book.  It comes in thin layers so I doubled it up.  I cut two 22"x22" squares, and four 22"x18" squares.  Essentially the batting wraps the foam squares and is the layer between the foam and the fabric so you don't see corners and layers and stuff.  It makes it all smooth.





I also used an old foam mattress topper from my dorm room in college.  We were using it to try and pad the extremely  uncomfortable pull out couch bed when company came over, but I'll replace it.  You can just use all foam squares but I was saving some money (and I ran out of foam squares and didn't want to make another trip to the fabric store and I wanted to finish the poufs that night gosh dang it!).




I just cut the mattress topper into 22"x22" squares to match the foam.  Btw, did you notice how the squares are 22"x22" and I made my poufs 22"x22"?!  It was a bit of a "oh hey that worked out well, whew!" for me but fyi for you, they sell foam in 22"x22" squares so I would suggest that for the size of your poufs.


Alright, here are all the materials I need to stuff my pouf!  Batting, mattress topper squares, and 2" foam squares.


Here's how I stacked the foam.  I put the 2" foam squares on the top and the bottom so it would feel the nicest when you sat on the poufs.




Now I just had to stuff the pouf.  Start by placing your fabric on the floor with the opening on the top.  Put the 22"x22" batting layer down first.




Then fill with the foam layer by layer.




Once you get about 2/3rds of the way filled, stuff the batting around the outside.  One 22"x18" piece for each side.  And when I say stuff I mean STUFF.  You've got to wrangle that batting in there.  make sure it get's into the corners and doesn't overlap.  It's not hard, just takes some time.




Continue putting in the rest of the foam layers.  Before you add the last layer of batting on top, cut any of the batting that is sticking over the top edge.


Then pull the top panel over the batting, pin, and hand sew the final two edges and boom, you have a pouf!




My gorgeous poufs!




Here I am sitting on one of the poufs.  I'm not tiny and these things didn't compress all that much.  I was still on the level of people sitting on the couch.  Yay!  The foam idea worked!




Here I am using the pouf as a foot rest.  It's exactly the right height to prop my feet on.  Wonder how that happened ;)


There you have it!  My awesome, spectacular, amazing, do-it-yourself poufs!  That cost about $100 to do BOTH instead of $325 for ONE!  Go out and make some yourself :)


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