Tuffets, tuffets, tuffets

My crafty group decided to create tuffets. Are you familiar with the rhyme, "Little Miss Muffet, sat on her tuffet...?" If not, it's a small stool, or a hassock. This isn't the first time members of our crafty group have created tuffets. In fact, several ladies created tuffets a couple of years ago but I didn't try one at that time.

The tuffet project gained steam again this year and so I finally joined in. Critical pieces necessary for the project include: 18" piece of wood with specific holes drilled, an 18" piece of pieced foam, hardware and legs. Beyond that, your choice of fabric, a pattern and lots of carbon paper. In addition you need muslin for the base. And, oh yes, a big space so everyone can start working on their tuffet together. Our place is perfect for this sort of thing because we have such an open space and little furniture. I drag my tables out of my sewing space along with my sewing machine and iron, etc., and we are all set- we have a classroom ! A couple of the ladies brought their machines along too. And several people brought cutting mats and rotary cutters with them.

You stack up pieces of muslin and trace on the pattern using back to back carbons between the muslin layers. I traced mine one at a time. I kept tearing through the pattern when I tried more layers. This is truly a group project! You need 8 of these patterned panels, you sew on the strips and then you sew the panels together.

I had my fabric choices so I was elected to "demo" the process. It was hard. Everyone was watching me intently. Two or three members of the group had made them before so they "taught" the rest of us.

One of my friends (Maboubeh) made more progress on hers than I did, despite the fact that I completed my first panel on the first day. Here are pictures I took of Maboubeh's tuffet progress. It's a really interesting process and once you've done it, it seems so much easier than before you started the project.

Looks like fun, doesn't it?

The hard steps are getting the center of the cover in the center of the foam, getting the side strips straight and then using the 10 inch needle to add the button!  Quilting gloves came in handy! Several people measured and re-measured to be sure the centering was perfect!

Here is mine!

One of our members left town this month. We had her goodbye party in June. She is not a die-hard sewer and was struggling a little. She said she couldn't finish it before the moving company packed up most of her belongings. We convinced her to let us finish it for her. Her tuffet traveled from our apartment to a friend's house and back to our apartment, then to another friend's for the finishing button step and then our driver Oky delivered it to her apartment on Friday, June 22. The last of her household contents were packed up on the following Monday. Whew! Her tuffet is on it's way to Bangkok!

I am now ready to make another one!