How to stuff a pouf

I love myself a pouf. Have since I first set my eyes on them. But for $400+, I just could not get myself to spend that much. Ever. So, I set out to do it on my own.

I found this large square size shown above on ebay and won it for $35. Great. Cool. I felt pretty proud of myself. But then I had to figure out how to stuff it and let me tell you, I almost threw the damn thing away and called this mini-project a failure.

I tried blankets and rags and shirts, I tried my local upholstery store and my local oriental rug/kilim dealer. Then I turned to the internet where I found 30 pounds of shredded foam for $30. And when it arrived, it looked something like this...

And then I opened the vacuum sealed plastic covering and like some space aged wonder bug, it slowly grew and grew and grew and grew. Not sure what to do with my expanding mass of shredded foam, I figured I just had to go for it, so I started to stuff and stuff and stuff, making the most unbelievable mess in our back-yard. Foam everywhere.

Then I ripped the seam, then I realized that the zipper wasn't really a zipper so there was no way that I could close it off and I had no idea how to pack the foam dense enough to make the pouf dense. It would have been perfect to put the vacuum packed foam inside but thought of that after I had stuffed it 75% and I was not going back. Almost gave up again.

But I kept stuffing.

And ended up with a 98% stuffed pouf that gives a little when you sit on it so I think we'll use it as an ottoman/foot rest instead. Not perfect but not $400.