crafted home: DIY West Elm style Pouf

The West Elm Pouf's have been all over the internet, and I can't help but to have been sucked into the hype. I love them. They're so cute, and so pretty. And SO expensive.

Right.

Maybe it's because I spent the first half of my summer teaching math, or maybe it was a desperation to have a pouf of my own, but I look at those and I think, that's nothing more than a cube. Like, it's really just one of those seventh grade, net style cubes that I just spent 3 weeks teaching to a group of 13 year olds.

I decided to try making my own pouf. I will say right now, it was so much easier and quicker than I could even have imagined. I'd say under 1.5 hours to do this entire project.

Supplies required:

-A pretty, sturdy upholstery fabric (about 1m)

-Some cardboard to make a template

-Sharpies, or something you can safely use to mark up your fabric

-Stuffing (I just tore apart old pillows that have been in our basement for years)

I began by dividing my cardboard into two pieces - one that is 40cm by 40cm, and one that is 20cm by 40cm. These are the two pattern pieces I need to make this pouf.

Now you will build your pattern piece, moving your pattern pieces along your piece of fabric, tracing as you go (I used Sharpie but be careful depending on your choice of fabric). You will build your pattern to look like this:

Once you have finished tracing, you can cut out your pattern piece in ONE big piece. Following this, you are ready to begin sewing! I've made a sewing guide to make it even easier:

Start by sewing the first part of the box. Holding the right sides together, start by sewing the green line to the green line, as seen in the picture above. Continue by sewing the orange to the orange, yellow to the yellow, and red to red.

When you're done, you’ll have a half box finished.

One note I will add - I wanted to make a fancy edge on my pillow. I've never added an edge to a pillow before, so I was really just guessing as I went. If you want to add an edge, do it before you sew down the top part of your pillow. I added a photo below of how I made a corresponding edge so that it blended well with my pouf-to-be!

The next thing you are going to do is sew your top to your bottom. Following the sewing map, sew dark blue to dark blue, then pink to pink. Lastly, you will sew sky blue to sky blue, leaving the spot open so that you can flip your pouf right side in. The reason I left it in the center like that is because that way, you can easily flip it around to the back. Really though, you can leave the opening anywhere you want.

By this point, you should have an insideout pouf!

Then using the little hole you left, flip it rightside in.

And now for the fun part - stuff your pouf with stuffing!! Instead of purchasing stuffing from a craft store, which I find really expensive, I usually try to find old pillows (we always seem to have some lying around), cut them apart, and reuse their stuffing.