National Craft Month Project: Square Pouf

While it is still very cold where I live and large parts of my state remain covered in snow, spring fever is slowly setting in. I have put away all the winter decorations and my six year old and I are starting to bring out the spring and Easter paraphernalia.

Naturally I feel compelled to craft new things, especially since March is National Craft Month. This year’s spring trends, as I learned from Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores, have nautical, geometric, floral, and radiant orchid (Pantone Color of the Year) elements. And to make spring crafting easy during National Craft Month, Jo-Ann offers a $5 off $25 or more purchase coupon and a spring crafting inspiration website.

After some much needed spring cleaning and organizing in my daughter’s room, it was decided she lacked seating. She told me she wanted a pouf. Since we have something of a woodlands theme going in her room, and because it’s her favorite color, we looked for mostly green in the home décor fabric aisles at Jo-Ann. We found some lovely floral and geometric patterned fabric and paired that with a beautiful solid green.

A pouf, or a large floor pillow, is really easy to put together. For a 14” square pouf, which is bigger than you think, this is what you’ll need:

• One and a half yards of fabric in three different prints, half a yard of each. I used home décor fabric because it’s sturdier.
• Matching thread
• Matching zipper (optional)
• Stuffing material
• Sewing tools (machine, pins, scissors, seam ripper, ruler)

To make a 14” square pouf, measure and cut six 15” squares, including a 1/2” seam allowance, if you plan to sew the pouf closed by hand. If you want to include a zipper panel, add an extra inch to one square and make it 15” by 16” (technically no longer a square). Cut your zipper panel in half (15” by 8”) and pin the two halves lengthwise together, right sides facing each other.

Sew the zipper in your panel, following this fabulous tutorial on Design Sponge. I use it every time and could not do a better job showing you how to do it. Upon finishing your zipper panel, you will have six 15” squares.

I chose to alternate my fabric prints and have the solid green panels as the top and bottom of my pouf. After I created the zipper panel, I pinned and sewed two print panels together, right sides facing. Repeat with the other panels and then sew them all together.

Once all the side panels were sewn into a big square tube, I sewed in the top, followed by the bottom.

The corners are a bit tricky but if you go nice and slow, you should end up with a beautiful and consistent 1/2” seam.

When you sew the bottom, remember to open the zipper slightly or, if you don’t use a zipper and plan to close the pouf by hand, leave a large enough opening for turning the fabric and stuffing the pouf.

Trim your threads, iron your seams and turn your pouf inside out. Stuff it with whatever you have available, I used an old king size duvet. It’s amazing how much stuffing a 14” pouf takes. Like I said, it’s bigger than you think.

That’s all there is to it. I am very happy with my spring pouf and I am sure Lola will love it as well. The girl is so easy to please.

If you too would like to craft your way into spring, be sure to take a look at the Jo-Ann inspiration website. And don’t forget the coupon!

This post is sponsored by Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores as part of the National Craft Month campaign. I received a gift card to purchase materials and write this post. The opinions are my own.

Fairy House

I stumbled onto a beautiful felt tree trunk Sunday morning while going through my reader at seven in the morning. Very, very impressive. It made me forget about all the projects I have in the works and develop a severe case of Craft ADD. I do not have the patience to take on such a project though. That's why I don't knit, it takes me too long to finish something and I lose interest.

But I did want to recreate that trunk, my way. Fortunately I had an alternative at hand in the shape of a pile of wood in my backyard. I figured I would cut some wood, clean it up, and concoct a way to attach the felt mushrooms (the Dutch fittingly call them 'fairy benches') to the stump. The mushrooms looked easy enough to make.

So there I was at 8 o'clock, sipping my coffee, eying up the branches and trying to decide which one to use. I pulled out the dead apple tree branch, deciding then and there to take advantage of its hollow core and turn it into a fairy house rather than a stump to use on our nature table. The roof I would make out of felt, and I would make interchangeable rooftops for the different seasons. I could totally picture it in my mind.

I wondered if it would disturb the church goers too much if I fired up the chainsaw to chop my fairy house to size. It didn't matter in the end because I couldn't get the smaller chainsaw to work and the large one didn't have a chain on it. Ryan wasn't there to help me out but I doubt he would have been willing at that hour.

With my trusted little hacksaw I silently cut off a piece of the apple branch and several more branches in various sizes to make toadstools with. Because what is a fairy house without toadstools? I took all the wood inside and baked in a 250 degree oven on a foil lined cookie sheet for about an hour. This gets rid of any bugs, a lesson I learned the hard way last year with my acorn collection.

Next I chiseled out the spongy stuff inside the branch, scrubbed it with a wire brush, cut a door with my jigsaw, and sealed the house with a clear top coat. The other branches I painted white. Meanwhile I sewed the toadstool tops and then hot glued them on.

I am truly in love with the results. I have already started working on another roof for the fairy house, a red and white polka dotted one per Lola's request. All that is left to make are the fairy bench mushrooms. And fairies, of course.

I am linking my fairy house up with A Little Birdie Told Me... at Rook No. 17 and Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onions.

Fairy Princesses

Have you ever visited Twig and Toadstool? It is the most magical place and every single one of their posts is an inspiration to me. When I saw their blossom fairies, I knew instantly I was to going to recreate these lovely ladies for my daughter's fourth birthday party. 

This weekend I brought out pegs, felt, pipe cleaners, silk flowers, acorn caps, and my glue gun. Two hours later nine colorful beauties were sitting on my craft table. My daughter loves them. She has claimed all the pink, purple, and orange fairies as her own. It looks as if I am going to have to make a few more.

The full tutorial can be found at Twig and Toadstool.