Everything but the kitchen sink

A guest post by Alyssa.

For those of you following VVG and are saddened the dearth of recent posts there, it is because I am busy working, working, working for pay - not a lot of cooking, cooking, cooking or blogging, blogging, blogging. But last weekend, I was sick of all the work and decided to take on a creative project.

I had strict parameters for this project. First, it had to be a project that I could finish from start to finish in one afternoon. Second, I could not run out to buy any supplies. You see, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree (my mom created a monster!!) and in the last year I've acquired a great deal of fabric supplies. I live in a small apartment. I don't have room for copious amounts of supplies!

But, after completing this project, I now have room for many, many more supplies.

You see this pouf?

Pretty nice, huh?

You'll never believe what's inside.

I used Butterick 5230 for my pattern, but after reading the construction methods, abandoned ship because the finish would have looked, well, awful. Luckily, I found this post from Better Homes and Gardens about how to finish the pouf more to my liking. Aside from the better construction methods, step #10 came in particularly handy when I was stuffing my mammoth pouf.

You see, the Butterick pattern did not specify how much poly-fil to use for the project. So I bought 3 -20oz bags thinking that would cover it. How wrong I was. I stuffed all three in, and barely filled half of this pouf. So, upon the suggestion of BHG, I went digging in my closet and found two - not one, but two! - 18" down pillows that I wasn't using. I wrestled those, much like this cowboy wresting the calf, into the pouf via an 8" hole. Yee-haw!!

Still, not full.

So, I went digging again. I found some old long underwear from my college days and stuffed about 8 shirts and pants into the pouf.

Still, not full.

I put in all the scraps from any project I've done in the past year, including a couple of muslin dresses and skirts.

Still, not full.

I dug up two old queen sized sheets and crammed those in.

Still, not full.

I found an Elmo Halloween costume and added that to the pouf.

And finally, the pouf was full. With pretty much everything except the kitchen sink.