Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Recycled Pouf/Floor Cushion Thing

I've been wanting some poufs for my living room only just forever. I love the look of these Urchin Poufs and this diy pattern is fantastic, but I decided not to spend anything on this project. So in a fit of stash busting and recycling, I made some tee shirt yarn (check out my tutorial!) and I grabbed a ton of old clothes and scraps for stuffing and I made myself a nice crocheted pouf. I'm usually more of a knitter, but this yarn is a bear to knit with - I broke 2 sets of circulars on a bath mat a couple years ago.


So anyway, here's my pouf. Along with my lovely assistant. :o) He worms his way into all my photos these days. 


The finished pouf is about 8 inches tall and 21 inches in diameter. I used a size K crochet hook. To fill it, I lined it with an old sheet and filled it with lots and lots of fabric scraps and some old knit swatches.

Tee Shirt Yarn Tutorial


Here's how I make a single, continuous length of yarn from an old tee shirt.


You will need a ruler, a pair of fabric scissors and something to mark the fabric with. I'm using a soft drawing pencil.


Step 1:
Cut off the bottom hem and cut across from armpit to armpit.  You won't be using the bottom hem or the top part.



Step 2:
Fold one of the folded edges until it's a couple inches away from the opposite folded edge.



Step 3:
Flip the fabric 90 degrees. Mark the bottom edge and the edge of the overlying chunk of fabric at 1 inch increments.


Step 4:
Draw parallel lines connecting your marks.


Step 5:
Cut along the lines. Make sure you cut all the way through the overlapping folded edge, but don't cut those couple inches at the top (the unmarked area). If you cut all the way up, you will have a bunch of loops.


Step 6:
Unfold the fabric and lay it out so the uncut area is flat. Now here comes the trickiest part. You're going to cut from the first slit at the bottom to the second slit on the top. See how I'm holding the ruler? That's the line you cut along. I don't mark this part because it's easiest to just hold it in your hand and eyeball it.


Step 7:
Push the loop you cut off aside. For the rest, you are going to cut from the first slit on the bottom to the first slit on the top. You're going to create a long, continuous strip of fabric. Keep going until you reach the end.


Step 8:
Now at the ends, you have a couple funny looking loops. To fix that, you just taper off from the slit to the outside edge. I like the tapered edge because I think it's nice when you transition from one ball of yarn to another. It also blends in nicely when you weave in the ends to finish your knitting.


Step 9:
The fun part! You now have a pile of what looks like jersey ribbon. To give it a rounded, yarn-like appearance, you just grab a section between your hands and pull! Keep going for the whole length of yarn and you're done!


Now take that pretty pile and wind it into a ball. (I like this center pull ball method (scroll down the the bottom of the page))

Please let me know if you like this tutorial, or if you have any problems with it!