DIY Friday: Shoulder Pouf!

DIY Shoulder Pouf

I was first inspired to begin this DIY quest when I saw an often reoccurring LARGE shoulder pouf on the blog I am Khatu: a Style Chronicle (if you're not as handy, you can buy a shoulder pouf made by her in her Etsy shop here). I loved the bold statement and I knew I could easily replicate the look in less than an hour. I looked around for the perfect DIY instructions that would give the same pouf as the big and fabulous one Khatu has, but everything I could find were meant to make small, dainty poufs, à la Ban.do (see Ban.do pouf pic at right). Finally, I came to the realization that I would have to modify instructions to suit me. I went with the instructions on this site and only had to perform some slight modifications.

For example, instead of using pink chiffon (which reads a little bridal or - worse - toddler girl) I used black organza. And instead of cutting out small half circles, I used a large dinner plate as my template (using a larger circle pattern created a larger brooch...hopefully you already knew that :P). My final modification was a sew all the chiffon layers to a smaller circle I cut out of felt (see image  below)

I thought the felt might help stabilize all the extra fabric. Also the felt made a nice anchor for the brooch clasp. After that, I basically followed the rest of the steps given (adding more layers than called for to give my pouf extra...pouf!). 

ATTENTION! (One final tip!) >>> If you are going to use organza like I did and you don't want your pouf to unravel and shed all over yonder it is a good idea to consider melting the edges of  your organza circles before (yes, MELT). If you have never done this before I strongly suggest you watch some YouTube videos before hand as this activity has the potential of becoming a fire hazard. All you need is a candle and your fabric, but organza catches on fire quite easily and it really BURNS. So always remember to use caution when handling fire. Also good to know, the fire curls the edges in a bit, so your pouf won't be as shabby-chic-looking as some other DIY pics, but that's worth it to me to keep my pouf from unraveling to nothing after a few wears.

Below I posted a pic of me wearing the pouf so you have an idea of exactly how big the pouf is. I LOVE IT! I have yet to find the perfect outfit to wear it with, but when I do I know it's going to be amazing. (I wish I could have have someone else take a pic from a distance so you could see it in ALL it's glory, but no one was around!)

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