DIY Kiddo Floor Cushion

I've been feeling the crafty bug lately.  Ever since the kiddo was born, I've been using all my free time doing stuff like keeping her alive and watching her laugh.  "Making stuff" hasn't been a priority.  But last month, I whipped up a few quick swimsuit costumes for a beach trip, and sewing was back in my system.  I needed a quick fix, so this past weekend I headed to my trusty Pinterest boards and found a project: a floor pillow cushiony thing for the child to flop into.  (It also makes a comfy grown up pillow for laying on the floor when playing with kiddos!)  

There's a great tutorial here but I made a few tweaks because I do things in the easiest way I can.  So I'm posting my process below!

Step 1: Buy Fabric
You don't have to use upholstery fabric, but you want it to be a sturdy fabric that can take a pounding.  I recommend shopping locally, so I visited my friend Nicole's shop The Cloth Pocket and after an hour of narrowing down, chose this gem - mostly because I loved the lemur.

Step 2: Cut out your pieces
You will need two 17" circles, and one 9" x 54" strip (if your fabric isn't 54" wide, you'll need to piece 2 strips together)  I made a pattern for the half circle by taping 2 sheets of paper together and using a ruler to measure 8.5" from the center point to create the arc.  
Optional handle pieces: two 3" x 12" strips
All of your main pieces will fit on ONE yard of fabric.  I used a purple accent fabric for the piping and handle.  

Fold fabric in half twice lengthwise, place half circle fabric on the folds.  Make sure to put your kitties in time out before starting, otherwise they will get ALL up in your business.

Cut your 9" sections

**Want to do the mega ultra easy version?  You can leave off the decorative piping edges and sew your 9" strips together and cut it down to 54" long.  Then sew your strip to the circle, making sure to place right sides together.  Make sure to leave a little gap to turn the pillow inside out and stuff it. Done.    
If you want to do the long version and add the decorative piping and handle, keep reading!  

Step 3: Piping
You can buy pre-made piping at any fabric store.  But sometimes you can't find the right color or size, or you balk at the price and say "I'll just make it myself for waaay cheaper" and you'll end up making your own.  Here's how to do that.  I swear, it's easy.  
Start by getting yourself some cording in whatever size you want your piping to be.  You can find a wide variety of options here, but since it's going to be covered, you want to keep it simple and cheap.  Get creative - I used 3/8" nylon roping that my husband found at Home Depot, which was a fraction of the cost of any cording at a fabric store.  

Nylon rope

Next, cut your fabric strips to cover the cording ON THE BIAS.  (For the uninitiated, bias usually means a diagonal cut, perpendicular to your selvage edge.)  You want to strips to cover the rope, and leave about a 1/4" seam allowance, so your width will depend on the size of your cords.

Cutting bias strips

Sew your strips together by lining up the corner edges, right sides together, to form an L shape.  Snip off the excess in your corners.  Congrats, you have successfully created bias tape.

Bias tape!

Start covering your rope with the bias tape.  Pin snugly against the rope.  Make sure the right aside of your fabric is on the outside of the rope!

 Using the zipper foot of your machine, sew the fabric snugly against the rope.  Now you have Piping!  

Step 4: Assembly 
Take your circle and pin your piping to the right side of the face, edges together.  Then lay your side strip face down on top, line up your edges, and re-pin all the layers together.  Make sure you remove all of the old pins!

At the ends where your piping meets itself, overlap them in a V shape.  Proceed to sew your three layers together. My machine did not want to sew over two layers of nylon rope, so I trimmed the rope down on the edges so that I was only sewing over rope on one side, and the fabric of the piping on the other end.   

Final look of  fabric sewn together , with piping overlapped.

**If you want to attach a handle, sew it on the side before you attach the other face.  Sew your handle fabric strips, right sides together, leaving one end open to turn it inside out.  Stitch up this opening, and then attach your handle however you want.  See photo below for how I did mine!   

Step 5: The Stuffing

Halfway through sewing, I decided to relocate my open seam for stuffing, in order to hide it under my handle.  So I seam ripped one of the side panels large enough to fit my hand in, turned the entire thing inside out and started stuffing. I used about 48 ounces of Fiberfill to get a very stuffed, firmer pillow.  You can use more or less depending on the desired fullness of your pillow.   

Handle and stuffing hole!

get stuffed!

Hand stitch up your hole, and YOU ARE DONE!  Throw a child onto the pillow and watch them go.  

Finished.

Time to play!