DIY Moroccan Pouf
If you know me, two things I love to decorate with lately are poufs and rugs! Unfortunately both can be a little on the spendy side. I don’t think I could ever tackle making my own rug, but poufs didn’t seem that complicated so I figured maybe, just maybe I could make my own!
I first googled how to make a pouf, and sadly there weren’t any tutorials I could find online, so I decided I needed to change that 🙂 So here is my DIY Moroccan Pouf Tutorial:
I started by choosing a pleather fabric (faux leather). I knew the material needed to be a little on the heavy side, but still flexible enough to go through my sewing machine. I purchased 2 1/2 yards with a coupon from JoAnn Fabrics (total cost: under $20) which turned out to be a little more than I needed, but better to have too much than too little I guess! I then went to work creating templates. I own a pouf that I got a great deal from Wayfair.com (under a $100, but normally retails around $150+shipping).. still an absurd price to pay for a small ottoman, but they are too cute! and practical of course! :)) So I used my “authentic” moroccan pouf to create the template for my DIY pouf!
First I measured the top and bottom circles of the pouf. The bottom was roughly 22″ in diameter (which include a centimeter seam allowance). The easiest way I found to make a perfect circle that size was to attached a piece of ribbon to a pen and draw it. There is a zipper directly in the middle, so I did two separate pieces:
For the top circle, the diameter was 6″. I had a kitchen bowl just that size so I used that for my stencil.
Then I measured the other pieces and added a centimeter to each side for seam allowance. I drew up the template and glued it to a thin piece of cardboard to make a stencil. The finished size of the top pentagon arrow was: 1 3/4″ wide at the bottom and 3 3/4″ at the widest part. The total length was 7 1/4″ (5″ from the bottom to the bottom of the triangle, and 2 1/4″ to the top). Here is a rough draft of my stencil: Pouf Stencil
I did the same thing to create a stencil for the body of the pouf. The finished size was 4 1/2″ wide and 13″ long. Once my stencils were created, I used my rotary cutter to cut out 16 of the top arrows and 16 of the body arrows. (I cut out each one separately because I found the material shifted slightly with each cut and I wanted my corners to be as exact as possible with this project.)
Once all the pieces were cut out it was time to break out the sewing machine! I should note here, that I am in NO way an expert sewer. In fact, this is one of my first “real” projects sewing. I have made a few pillows & curtains here and there, but never undertook this kind of project before, so it was a learning-as-I-go kind of thing!
The first part was pretty simple and that was to sew all the top arrows together. I pinned and sewed each one one-by-one. The most important thing to keep in mind is to keep your seams consistent throughout. I did a 1 centimeter seam allowance on all my cuts, so I made sure I sewed my seam always at 1cm. The next important thing to remember is to make sure your fabric lines up as perfectly as possible. In the beginning I was worried about this, so I pinned the pieces together before sewing…. as I got more confident I was able to just set the foot down. And lastly, when you begin and end each sewing session ALWAYS back-stitch to ensure your stitches will stay in!
Once all the pieces are sewn together, it should look something like this:
After the top arrows were sewn together, it was time to add the top circle. I did this by picking a starting point and just attaching my circle as I went. I first tired to pin it in place, but the material was to hard to lay flat & navigate through the machine with all the pins sticking out. It was easiest to maintain the 1 centimeter seam and just sew.
This is what it looked like finished:
Now came time for the complicated part. Start by pining one side in place and make sure the overlap is evenly spaced – see below:
Start sewing at the outer end and work your way to the middle (for the 2nd-16th piece sew at the end opposite of the last piece). Remember: Make sure to back-stitch each time you start and finish a seam. Sew up to 1 centimeter to the middle (do NOT sew all the way to the end):
Take your piece out and begin pinning the other side. Again, you will want to make sure to evenly space the material and pin it in place, however this time, you can start sewing from the middle of the triangle if it is easier.
Just make sure there is no gap in the stitching and the material should lay flat:
You will do this for all 16 pieces. Once you are done, your pouf should look something like this:
Now it is time to sew the side pieces together. This part isn’t really that complicated since we are just stitching the sides together, however I ran into issue with the material being so thick in areas I broke a few needles. The best advice I have is to sew slowly and make sure you are not pulling the fabric to much (and thereby not bending the needle!). I pinned the top parts of the triangle as I went and sewed from the top down. With each seam, I would turn the pouf right side out and make sure there were no gaps/un-sewn parts.
Once that part is done, your pouf should look something like this:
Then comes the optional part. I wanted mine to look as close to my Moroccan Pouf as possible, so I purchased some braided ribbon-trim to sew on the seams (I had a coupon and purchased it from Joanns less than a $2 a yard). I used a thread that matched the trim perfectly and used a zig-zag stitch to sew it on. First I sewed a piece of trim on one side of the top arrow. Then I attached a piece of trim from the top of the pouf all the way to the bottom. I wanted to do as few cuts as possible to the trim to avoid any unraveling. I did a LOT of back-stitching on this part to secure each piece of trim.
Once the sides were done, I sewed trim on the top circle and my pouf looked like this:
Then came time to sew the bottom. I watched a tutorial to sew the zipper in (which I failed at a few times and had to undo twice… like I mentioned before, I don’t have much experience sewing!) I don’t really have a how-to on that part, it was an epic trial-by-error until it worked! (I recommend googling a tutorial on zippers if you need help with this part!) Once the zipper was in place, I sewed the bottom on, just like I did the top circle. If you don’t like the height of the finished pouf you can adjust this by making the seam more than a centimeter. I did adjust my seam at the bottom- I think it was close to 2 1/2 cm in the end.
Once that was done, it was time to start hand-stitching the top! I made a feeble attempt to make an outline stencil of the center start shape… but eventually just started winging it. I figured no one was going to be staring at both poufs at the same time, so as long as I had the basic shape down, it was good enough! I used embroidery floss I had laying around the house, but I think any thick string would work!
And once the hand stitching was finally done – then came stuffing the pouf! And holy-moly can this puppy hold a LOT of stuffing!! I ordered a 3 bags of polyester batting (81×96) from amazon for about $6 each hoping that would be enough… but was sorely mistaken. So instead of spending more money on the guts of the pouf then I did on the entire exterior I used old towels and blankets from around the house. I recommend shredding any towels/misc material you use for the inside to avoid any lumps.
Then, finally, after a few weeks of work (I made this guy in my spare time between work & my four kiddos running around so it took awhile to finish it!) the final product turned out pretty well for my first time!
