Our living room is relatively spacious but we don’t have a ton of seating.  This is fine for the most part since it’s just the two of us (excuse me, 3, if you count Spoo).  But it’s nice to have some casual seating around, just in case.  My friend Angela has a couple of Moroccan leather poufs at her place and I always thought they were a fun addition to the space and feel a lot less committal than big, heavy pieces of furniture.  So I figured I could make something similar.

I started to look online for some DIY instructions.  I’d google “how to make an ottoman” and such and couldn’t find what I was looking for.  After a few different attempts I stumbled upon this DIY Pouf tutorial. (Oh, a pouf - that’s what that thing is called!)  It seemed relatively easy (Samantha provides pattern instructions which is great since I didn’t want to figure that part out myself).  I already had the perfect fabric picked out from my vintage sheet stash.  I love vintage sheets because they are usually very colorful and cheery, plus there’s a lot of fabric in one piece.

I followed the instructions as written except for #2 - Instead of creating a hole on the center of the pouf by folding under the pointed ends, I stitched each piece end to end and left an opening in one of the seams.

I flat-lined the pieces with a plain white sheet.  The stuffing is everything you can think of: unwanted clothing, fabric, sewing projects gone sadly awry (and that I felt too guilty about tossing)…even with everything stuffed in there I still couldn’t make it completely full; this pouf is almost 2′ wide and it’s mind-boggling how much can fit inside it!  I also added an over-sized doily in the middle which I really like.

It’s very squishy.  Not annoying “I’m stuck in this flippin’ beanbag” squishy, but just enough.  Doesn’t it look summery?   I’m already thinking about making another one.  This next pouf would be smaller and perhaps I’ll round off the corners a bit so the top (and bottom) will have a flatter appearance.

Are you working on any DIY projects for summer?  Do tell!

I’ve been meaning to share with you photos of my studio after I painted it grey from bright yellow (goodness, that was a while ago!).  And I guess this is really just a tease since I’m not quite ready to really show you everything. I’ve spent many hours cleaning, organizing and rearranging this room; it’s the one in the house where the misfit furniture ends up and I finally figured out how to make it all work.

Here you see some of my most loved vintage wearable things including stuff that will end up in le shop.  I’m really excited as I’ve had a kind of epiphany in terms of what I want to do with my time and what makes me happy; therefore my shop is going in a slightly different direction than where I was taking it before.  (But I don’t think it would be much of a shock to any of you.)  Details later.  (Oops, there’s that teasing again!  Hee hee.)

xo

It’s too early in the morning (and week!) for writing paragraphs.  So here are a couple of happy and silly pics for you.  Happy Monday, dears!

I’ve had some good luck with thrifting this past week.  A couple of things for myself (including a navy blue cashmere sweater for $2.75!) but mostly for le shop.  Some things need repairing, others perhaps a little embellishment or alteration.  More things for the to do list but I’m excited about doing hands on stuff and salvaging these pretty things!