In the late spring of 2020 I thought that I would be in person for my freshman year of college at the University of Delaware. I was starting to think about how I was going to decorate my dorm room and really liked the idea of having a pouf cushion. The only problem with this idea was the fact that pouf's are usually priced starting at around $100. This was a bit steep for a broke college student so I went with the next best thing, making one!
I found a design online that I liked and created a pattern from scratch. I purchased a couple yards of fabric from a craft store and got to work. I cut out 33 pieces with seam allowance, ironed on fusible interfacing (as the fabric I had chosen had a loose weave), and stitched around the edges for added security. I also cut out two pieces for the bottom out of a different fabric and attached velcro so that the inner cushion could be removed for easy cleaning. After sewing all of the pieces together, I got to work on the inner filling.
top view of pieces sewn together, white lines are to indicate where the seams are as the pattern of the fabric makes the pieces blend together (left); side view of pieces sewn together, white lines for seams (right)
One easy option was to buy cushion foam from a craft store but this was also very expensive, so once again I decided to do it myself. I had seen examples of people filling their poufs with old clothes as a more sustainable and cost effective option. I liked this idea as the environment is something I'm very passionate about. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough clothes lying around to fill my pouf and I thought they would be too heavy. Luckily for me, my parents were getting rid of an old foam bed topper, and I was able to repurpose that for my project.
I constructed a bag for the filling out of an old bed sheet and proceeded to spend 11 1/2 hours cutting the foam into small pieces. I then filled the bag, sewed it closed, and inserted the bag into the pouf lining through the velcro opening on the bottom. This project took me about a week to complete.
bottom view of pouf with velcro closed (left); bottom view of pouf with velcro open (middle); finished pouf (right)
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