This is for the Pinterest Home Dec Contest. I am making these for my sister. She has 4 kids (ages 6 to 15), and there is always a shortage of places to sit when I and all the grandparents are invited over.
I was inspired by 2 blog tutorials:
Mandy Made Giant Floor Pillows
Retropolitan Fabulous Floor Pouf
I also wanted to make a second slightly smaller pouf (like Mystic Mandy did), but add a panel with an iron-on design I made on Wordle - which was inspired by these - Wordle Gifts. In place of the adjectives, I used my sister's surname (largest) and all her kids, plus her name and her husband's. She's very protective of her online privacy, so even if I had finished, I don't think I'd want to post a picture here. Her birthday isn't until May, so it can still get done...
Anyway, the "pattern" I used was really just cutting out 2 large squares (I went with 32" - so between the sizes of my inspirations) and rectangles of a coordinating fabric. These are both the heavy duck from the home deco section. I pretty much followed the Retropolitan instructions, but only sewed on 3 of the sides. Actually I serged them. Given the wear they may be subjected to, I used 4 threads - heavy duty in the right needle and upholstery thread in the left (regular serger thread in the loopers).
For the 4th side, I cut 2 narrower rectangles, and tried to sew in a heavy duty metal zipper. I say tried because my sewing machine apparently does not care for upholstery thread. I got one rectangle sewn on perfectly, but as I started the other side, I got the dreaded thread nest. Tried everything (rethreaded, bobbin reset, pulled out the tools and reset the inside bobbin, even oiled). The only thing that worked was going back to normal thread. So I serged the zipper on. Yikes. Then I serged it onto the rest of the pouf (long sides first, "top" end of zipper", unzip halfway, then "bottom" end of zipper). This is why one side of the zip is more exposed than the other, but it looks OK with the stripe pattern.
I thought I was done, but the stuffing was the hardest part! These will me mailed cross country, and I will order "Ship to Store" poly bean bag fill that my sister can pick up near her home. But for me, I needed to find something around the house. Someone suggested towels. Great idea, but all my towels would fill it maybe half-way. So I added the seat and lumbar cushions from my lawn furniture! LOL
I'm not sure why Paint pixelized my photos so badly, so here are some final shots of my project -
Zipper Close-up
Next to bench to show scale
From Top
And here are the Pins for the inspiration (not direct to the blog sites, in case I need these for the contest!)
Mandy Made
Retropolitan |
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Pattern with more than 5 reviews!
Thanks for the detailed review -- those are some big floor pillows. Good luck!
2/28/13 2:43 PM
Very cool!
2/28/13 3:44 PM
Very nice!! What a great idea..love your fabrics
2/28/13 8:15 PM
Love the pouf. I bet your sister will get lots of use out of it at her house.
2/28/13 11:59 PM
Nice floor pillow. What a great way to add some more seating.
3/1/13 5:24 PM
The pouf looks very useful and kid-friendly. Nice use of fabrics.
3/1/13 10:09 PM
Inspiring for me to make one. Nice work!
3/8/13 6:58 PM