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!!

I-Don't-Care Curtains a.k.a. Patchwork Curtains

You lookin' at somethin'?!

*Warning: You know how I said my cats are incorrigible? You're about to learn why in this post*

So I've been moving along with The Girl's bedroom. She wanted mismatched textiles and mismatched-but-sorta-coordinating-because-I'm-anal textiles is what she'll get! I wish I could tell you that this is a tutorial. But then I'd be a liar. And nobody likes liars. And I want you to like me, because I like you! But anyway, a tutorial it is not! And that's because 1. I suck at math; my skills are embarrassingly poor, 2. I didn't really know what I was doing, and 3. every time I asked her opinion on anything about the curtains, she answered, "I don't care." Well, sh*t. Neither do I then. So I figured I'd just wing it!

I gathered some material and scraps I already had (I'll admit, hippies are the LEAST expensive decorators and I can totes get on board with that!), cut out some big square and rectangle shapes, and assembled them thus:

Hey. Hey, guys? I'm going to need those...

Ok, so I did use SOME measurements. I knew I wanted (needed?) a shade rather than traditional curtains for two reasons. Her room is on the second floor and, despite the central air, is UN-frickin-bearable, so she's got a window unit, too. So I needed curtains that wouldn't block the ac. SHE needed (wanted?) the curtains to block the sun in the morning. If I'd made panels, she'd need to close them at night, blocking the ac unit OR leave them open and risk the sun shining in. And we couldn't have THAT *eye roll* So I decided to make a single, tie-up curtain. That meant the finished curtain would need to be the same size as the window (67x37") so my raw measurements needed to be *somewhere* around 75x41" plus seam allowance for EACH square. That's when I was like, "WHY DID I TELL HER I'D MAKE THEM?!" To avoid having to do more math, especially considering the blocks were different shapes and sizes, I just overlapped them as I put my little curtain puzzle together to account for allowance, and continuously measured the overall length and width. I was just wingin' it all the way! Eventually, I needed to move to the floor because the table wasn't big enough. And lemme tell you how fun THAT was:

Ok, so that is kinda cute, but also a huge pain!

You're probably wondering what's going on in the picture above. Or you're a quilter and you know exactly what that is. That is smaller, odd-sized blocks sewn together to create larger, less odd-shaped blocks. Eventually, those larger blocks get sewn together to make the completed projected. I imagine this is an actual technique. But I'm NOT a quilter, so I don't know what it's called or if it even exists. It's just the only way I COULD sew some of it together if that makes any sense. Anyway, it ends up looking like this in the end:

I decided it wasn't gypsy-like enough and it needed something else. I ended up taking one of the sheer panels she already had hanging and cut two more rectangles from it. I attached beaded trim to each, hemmed the edges using a BAZILLION pins, and attached them to the curtain by ONLY sewing along the top edge. Now they flutter.

Lookit how the trims don't match each other! I had a breakthrough, yous guys!

I did line the curtain with some off white fabric I already had from another (although unfinished) project. There's probably a proper technique for that I ignored, too. I just hemmed the bottom of the lining, then sewed up the sides of the two pieces (right sides facing).

While admiring my handiwork, I saw this:

There was NO way I was ripping the seams out of four squares to fix that. So I improvised. I cut a square out of the peace sign fabric:

Ironed on some fusible web:

Cut the peace sign out with my trusty Xacto knife (while MAYBE pretending to be a surgeon) and scissors:

And ironed that bad boy right on there:

Will it last forever? Probably not. Will it do for now, until she decides to redecorate? Probably.

For the ties, I dug out an old scarf of mine with silver thread through it and tassels...and cut it up. This part hurt a little bit, actually. But in reality, I almost NEVER wear that scarf. 

So I took each strip, sewed it into tubes, and attached it to the top of the curtain at the same time I attached the rod pocket. I hung them just to be sure they fit, but not on the actual rod we'll use, or even inside the window as I intend for them to be mounted. But here's your peak at it before it's installed properly!

It MOVES!

So, they turned out fine, but I'll be honest, I'm not sure I'd attempt something like this again with the different sized blocks. Maybe there's an easier way (it probably involves math, though) that I'm unaware of. If there is, and you know it, PLEASE share it with me! I love the look, but won't do it again without instructions!