About a month ago I shared a post about my venture into pouf making, you can read about it here.  My daughter was in love with the finished bag and carried it with her from room to room.  All was well, except for the fabric used for the exterior of the bag.  It was this soft, stretchy panne and the give in fabric really kept the bag from maintaining any shape other than a flat pancake when used regularly.

Exhibit A:

Not too pretty, huh.  I left it alone until I couldn’t stand to look at the poor misshapen thing any longer and decided to replace the cover.  My only debate was whether or not to purchase something or try to find something I already had on hand.   I just so happened to have purchased some beautiful home decor prints and seriously considered recovering it in one of those, but then remembered that she does everything on this pouf, including  eating snacks and sometimes meals.  My daughter is not a neat at anything she does be it coloring to eating, so the thought of ruining the beautiful fabric within minutes kept me thinking of other possibilities.  And, then I had one of those “Aha!” moments and remembered that I had a cotton canvas drop cloth (previously used as a backdrop for photos) & some purple iDye (purchased earlier for another project, but never used).    Decision made…dye the canvas purple and use it to recover the pouf.

The canvas was dyed purple without any issue.  I just followed all the directions inside the little pouch.  After it was washed and dried, I went to work on recreating the pouf with a few minor changes.  First, I wanted something a little smaller because my daughter lugged this everywhere and getting it up and down the stairs was sometimes a challenge for her.  Second, I wanted to create one band to create the side of the pouf versus the four individual sides on the current bag.

So below you’ll see two 23 1/4″ squares along with a 90″ L x 14 ” H piece.  The drop cloth was only 90″ in total length, so that also played a factor in determining the overall size of the bag.  I cut everything on the floor just because it was easier than trying to wrangle the large drop cloth onto my cutting table.

Now to assemble the pouf, I used my ruler and white marking pencil to make the first tick about 13″ in from the end.  From that first mark I measured out 23 1/4″ inches and marked again and again until left with about 13″ inches on the opposite end.  Repeat on the other side.

Now I matched up a corner of the top of the pouf to the first tick mark on the side and began sewing about 5/8″ from the end.

You can see I stopped about 5/8″ inches from the end.  I did this to allow room for the other side.  If you stitch all the way across,  you have no way to create your corner.

In order to make the corner, I clipped at an angle almost to my stitching.  This allows me make the turn with my band of fabric.  Without the clipping it is really difficult to line up the fabric properly.

Then, I lined up the band to the next side of the top and matched the end of the top to the next tick mark on band.  Repeat steps from above.  I had some sides line up better than others, but I just made the adjustment at the corners.  A tiny bit of overlap at a corner isn’t going to be noticed (at least not by my 4 year old ).   I also clipped the excess fabric off at each corner.  The extra fabric will make the corner bunch when turned right side out.

This process was just repeated over and over until both the top and bottom were completely attached to the side band.  There was a large opening along the backside, where the two shorter ends met in the middle.  Perfect for turning and stuffing the pouf liner inside.

Let the stuffing begin!  I worked up a sweat getting the large stuffed liner inside it’s new home, but when it was done I was excited about the change in appearance almost immediately.  The canvas is definitely thicker and more capable of maintaining the square shape.  After the stuffing was complete, I slipstitched the opening by hand using purple thread.  The double stitching was already there as it was the stitching around the edges of the drop cloth originally.  It didn’t dye with the rest of the fabric, so I’m guessing it is nylon (dye was for cotton only).  You can ignore the loose threads, I pulled those out later.

That’s it.  New cover now completed and thoroughly tested.  My daughter has brought it up and down the stairs numerous times, jumped on it and even shared a brief tug-of-war over it with her brother.  All the while it managed to keep the shape you see below.  Yay!  No more flat pancake.