Mo-roccan the Red and Gold

The Girl recently went to her high school orientation...a school whose colors are red and gold. For days, every Facebook status she posted read, "ROCK THE RED AND GOLD ROCK THE RED AND GOLD ROCK THE RED AND GOLD..." and so on. Every comment she posted on MY wall read the same. (I might've mentioned that she was accepted to a well known college preparatory high school ranked 6th in the state that may or may not have some very successful alumni at least one of whom whose name you'd all recognize. /bragging)

I promise my daughter is NOT Matthew Gray Gubler. That IS, however, her actual profile picture.

Meanwhile, back in The Sticks, I wanted to make a Moroccan pouf her room. Part of her room redo project is using as much of what I already have as possible. Kids' tastes change and I'm not big on the idea of spending a lot just to have them want to change it in a year. Plus, repurposing seems to keep with the hippie/boho concept. That said, when planning her pouf, I went digging through my fabric stash to see what I had. Coincidentally, I found this great gold fabric I'd bought ages ago (even more coincidentally for a DIFFERENT Moroccan-inspired project) and a shimmery red curtain I knew I was never gonna hang again, but was holding onto (I'm a mini hoarder! lol). I set them on a chair together and walked away for a few days. During those few days, all I'd read were those status updates and when I saw my fabric choices again, they seemed even more perfect.

I had scoured the internet for the perfect pattern. Which I didn't find. But I did learn what I wanted the thing to look like, and created my own. I wanted the top to be an eight-pointed star and the sides/bottom, to just be eight long panels. That's why I chose two fabrics for this...I wanted the star to stand out. So, I literally pieced together pieces of newspaper and folded and cut and recut again until I had what I wanted. The Girl was NOT here to help me with the math, so I was just winging it.

These are BY NO MEANS to scale!!

So those were the measurements I used. The side panels measure 28 inches along the fold, 6 inches along the short angle, 12 inches along the long angle, and 14 3/4 inches along the straight edge. The distance from the fold to the edge is 6 5/8 inches. The star pieces measure 15 inches along the fold, 6 inches along the short angle, and 11 5/8 inches along the long angle. The distance from the fold to the edge (where the two angles meet) is 4 1/2 inches. You'll need to cut eight of each from both your material AND lining.

Yep, I totally used a cheap blue curtain for my lining 'cause I'm a REBEL!

Starting with your star pieces (and star lining!), sew two together (right sides facing and all that), along one LONG edge. I forgot to take pictures for this step, sorry :( You'll have a sandwich of pieces though, where your lining is the bread, and your main fabric is the meat. Continue until you've joined all eight pieces together. It'll look like this when it's done:

Here's where I deviate from EVERY other tutorial out there. I practiced with my lining, and just could NOT manage the "other" way. Most (all?) of the other tutorials have you join the eight side panels in the same manner as the top pieces and then join the top and bottom "halves". If you can do this, go for it! I just could NOT get my pieces to line up correctly; it was a hot mess of funky corners. So I joined each side panel and lining pair individually to my finished star and THEN joined the side panels to each other.

I've started joining the panels as seen by the two panels in the bottom right corner of the picture.

I left two sides of the bottom points open for stuffing.

I took a tip from the Better Homes and Gardens tutorial and used old towels and stuff I had lying around the house to stuff the "core" of pouf, and fiberfill around the "outside."

Stuff I had lying around

Then used a hidden stitch to close it up. I DID remove the cat, first. I promise.

You can see my points didn't meet up perfectly. I didn't care since it was the bottom. I considered adding an octagon to the bottom to cover it, but then I was like, "eff it." I would love to make the mathematical adjustments to the pattern for you guys so you won't have this problem, but I have NO IDEA HOW. *shame*

I really loved the decorative stitch they used on the seams in the BHG tutorial, so I busted out the gold thread left over from my graduation favors and got to work. If you looked at the illustration in the link, it looks a little complicated, but it's actually pretty easy and a lot faster than I thought it would be. The steps in photo form:

I wasn't able to complete it in one evening, but I DID get pretty far and was able to finish it up the next day.

Proof that, despite my urges, I did NOT sew him inside the pouf

Finished stitches

The thing weighs a ton. And you can see it's not little...Cat is an average-sized house cat, 8-10 lbs. Despite my mathematical and joining issues, this was actually really easy to make. Not counting the time I spent practicing my methods, I probably had it completed in a few hours each day, over the course of three days...quicker than her curtains!!