Were you wondering where we hid the hamper in our little girl’s nursery? Well, wonder no more! (Or perhaps I’m being presumptuous, and you weren’t wondering at all… in which case, feel free to read on anyways!) I sort of ran out of floor space in the nursery, so when I found this idea for a hanging hamper on Martha Stewart’s website, and when I realized I had all of the supplies I needed on hand, it took me about five minutes (or less?) to whip up this handy hamper to hang inside baby girl’s closet.

The laundry bag on Martha Stewart’s website was an actual laundry bag, held open by a large embroidery hoop. I didn’t have a laundry bag, and figured a standard pillow case would do the trick (and mighty prettily, I might add!) along with a smaller embroidery hoop (just because that’s what I had on hand).

First I assembled the hanging hamper by sandwiching the ends of the pillowcase in between the embroidery hoop parts. Then I looped some twine around the hoop’s screw mount, and knotted it securely. I decided to hang the hook on the lower half of the door, instead of in the middle of the door, so that I can still use a hook above it to hang clean garments, and so that our little girl can easily access the hamper when she’s old enough to put away her own dirty clothes. The last step was simply to hang the hamper by the twine, and then fill it with dirty clothes! Easy, cheap, and useful. Now that’s a DIY I can really enjoy.

Sadly, it seems that lately I’ve had less and less time for DIY action ’round these parts, thanks to baby prep. I have a feeling it will just get worse once the little girl is here. (Obvious statement of the year!) While most of my projects lately revolve around the nursery (this one not excluded), I hope you can still be inspired to create projects using similar techniques! This pouf-style ottoman is certainly a project anyone with minimal sewing skills can whip up, whether you’d like to prop up your feet in a nursery or living room. Don’t be intimidated as I was! It took me a month with these supplies to actually get going.

I began this project with an idea of an end product in mind, but with no clear directions for how to go about it. What I wanted was a structured pouf, not those DIYs you see where they stuff batting inside. No, I wanted to be able to sit on this puppy and not have the whole thing collapse under my weight. Also, I wanted something with a nice cylindrical shape to it- not just a blob of a foot rest. So, I set about to create something like that, and while it’s not perfect- it’ll do the job just fine! Check out my process below.

• 3 twin/full size comforters (Yes- that many! I used old ripped up ones I had laying around. Also easily found and cleaned from the thrift store)
• Approximately 2 yards of woven fabric (depending on how large your end product is)
• A round object to use as a stencil (You will need something the size of your wrapped comforters) (I used an end table, shown is a large serving bowl, or you could use a pencil/thread compas like this)
• Scrap fabric and cording for piping
• Embroidery floss and sewing thread
• Sewing, darning, and large upholstery needle
• 2 metal washers and two decorative buttons
• Straight pins
• Fabric marker
• Fabric sheers
• Duct tape
• Sewing Machine
• Tape Measure

STEP ONE: Take three like-sized comforters, and fold them into quarters, and roll one very tightly together, duct taping it secure, then wrap the next one, and the next one in the same fashion. Make sure you use enough duct tape to secure it, but not too much to detract from the softness of the comforters’ batting.

STEP TWO/THREE: Find a like-sized object to the diameter of your rolled comforters. Mine happened to be a round end table. You can also use a pencil/thread compass like described here. Trace over two layers of your fabric, and cut out the circle with fabric sheers.

STEP FOUR: Determine how much cording you will need for piping by stringing the cording around the perimeter of the circle you just cut. Trim out a little extra, just to be safe!

STEP FIVE: Cut out long strips of your scrap fabric to cover the cording for your piping. I ended up using smaller scraps, so I had to join them together before the next step.

STEP SIX: Using a zipper foot (cording foot) on your sewing machine, wrap the scrap fabric around the cording and stitch it closed to make your piping.

STEP SEVEN: Pin the piping to the perimeter of each circle, and closely around the piping’s edge. It is helpful to do this in a contrasting color thread, so that you can easily see where to stitch for step nine.

STEP EIGHT:  To finish the edges of your piping, just cross them over slightly and sew along the edge, as shown in the photo.

STEP NINE: Measure the height of your wrapped comforters, and the perimeter of your circles. This is the size of fabric you will need to cut out for the sides of the ottoman- plus one inch for seam allowance. Stitch together the sides of this fabric, creating a cylindrical shape which will be stuffed with the comforters once one of the circles have been attached to the bottom.

STEP TEN: After you have sewn together one circle to the bottom of the cylindrical sides you just made, fill the shape with the wrapped comforters. At this point, I decided to add batting to the top and bottom of the fabric sleeve, but this is not shown in the photos.

STEP ELEVEN: Now you can add the top circle. This part is tricky, because you have to stitch it by hand. A bit rough on the fingers and your patience! You will use a slip stitch here, slipping the needle under the piping and then through the fabric which makes up the side of the ottoman.

STEP TWELVE: Thread your large upholster needle with embroidery floss, and wrap one end of the floss around a washer. Push your needle from one side of the pouf to the other, and once you have it through, switch your needle to a darning needle, press down on the top of the ottoman, and wrap the thread around the other washer, creating a tufted effect. I went through the pouf a couple of times with the large upholstery needle to make sure the washers were secure. This is a little tricky with just two hands- because you have to hold down the pouf and secure the washer at the same time.

STEP THIRTEEN: This image shows the secured washer on one side. But since washer’s aren’t cute, I covered mine with a button cover. If I did not have a button cover, I would just sew a regular button on top of it. Decorate it however you wish!

I’m sorry the directions aren’t more precise, but this is a project that can be done in any size, and I honestly didn’t know what size it would end up when I started! Sometimes I fly by the seat of my pants like that. If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments section and I will answer them to the best of my ability.

Have the nesting urges hit me yet? I’m not sure, but judging by the number of quick bread loaves piling up in my kitchen, the chances are pretty good that I am! After wrapping them all tightly with plastic wrap, and stowing them away in the freezer, I plan on gifting the loaves to friends and family who offer us help during my first month or so with the little kiddo. Now, I ask you, would you rather receive a bread loaf stuffed into a zip-lock bag? Or something delicious wrapped in a pretty, patterned package? I prefer the pretty option. And I hope my family and friends will appreciate their little gifts too!

Want to make your own mini loaf wraps? Check out the directions and printable template below.

• mini (or full sized, but you will have to make your own template) bread loaf
• variety of heavy-weight patterned paper plus coordinating card stock
• light-colored cardstock to use as a template
• scissors (regular and decorative edged)
• tiny hole punch
• twine or ribbon
• 1 1/4″ hole punch
• measuring tape
• ruler
• pencil and gel pen

1.) Print the template onto your card stock, if you are working with a mini loaf. If you are working will a full-size loaf, measure the perimeter (just sides and bottom, not top) of the short and long sides of the loaf. Note the width on the template card stock, and then measure the height of the sides of the loaf, noting this dimension as well.

2.) Cut out your printed template, or if you are making your own, mark the perimeter onto your card stock (my mini loaf measured 6×8″), and then mark out squares in the corner, measured to the size of the height of the loaf (mine measured 1.75″). Connect the lines with your ruler and a pencil, then cut along the lines to make the template.

3.) Using a pencil, trace the template onto the back side of your patterned paper, making sure the pattern is going the direction you prefer. Then cut out the patterned paper.

4.) Trim the tops of each side with decorative edged scissors.

5.) Using the tiny hole punch, punch holes into the two corners of each edge. You will punch 8 holes total.

6.) Punch a hole into your template with the 1 1/4″ hole punch, to use as a template for writing your tag labels onto the coordinating card stock. Lay the template over your coordinating card stock, and using a black gel pen, and write your message in the middle. If your first line ends up off centered, just adjust the template. This is why you are writing the label before punching out the circle.

7.) Once your label is written, line up the back side of the hole punch with your label and punch it out, making sure you leave enough room at the top for punching a tiny hole to attach the label with twine.

8.) Bend the sides of your patterned paper wrap, insert the loaf (wrapped in plastic or wax paper first), and interlace the tiny punched holes with twine. Make sure you have enough twine left on the ends to tie a bow! Trim the twine, tie it, attach the label, and then tie it into a bow.

That’s all there is to it! I made a bunch of these little guys at once, to keep back and use in the future, because they’ll be great to give for the holidays, as party favors, or to prettify a bake sale. Easy as pie, right? Or I should say, easy as quick bread. Enjoy!