Last week I discussed options for how I wanted to re-cover an old leather pouf that has seen better days (thanks to one of my cats). I decided to go with the knit version, and I have to say that it turned out even better than I expected! If you do a lot of DIY projects, you know how rare that is.

Want to see how I did it?

How to Re-Cover a Leather Pouf

First I made a fabric slipcover for the pouf. I used some mid-weight denim that was in my fabric hoard stash that happened to be a perfect match for my chosen yarn. But any sturdy upholstery fabric or canvas would be a good choice. I would just avoid anything too lightweight. And unless you want the fabric to contrast with the yarn as part of the design, it does need to be a close color match, because with this knitting technique and a pouf of this size you can see quite a lot of the fabric between the yarn.

Before sewing it, I pinned my slipcover pieces on the pouf inside-out to make sure they fit.

If you don’t want to sew a slipcover, another option might be to dye or paint your pouf a color that matches your yarn.

The slipcover is basically two circles, and one long, narrow rectangle that is the height of the pouf by the circumference of the circle, plus seam allowances. My rectangle is actually two pieces sewn together, because my fabric wasn’t long enough.

Using a 1/2-inch seam allowance, I sewed the short ends of the rectangle together, then sewed it around the edge of one of the circles. For the second circle, I only sewed it halfway around. Then I inserted the leather pouf, and used an invisible slip stitch to hand-stitch it closed.

I’m actually telling you what I ended up doing after my first attempt didn’t work out. I thought I could sew a zipper across the diameter of one of the circles, and insert the pouf through that, but it wouldn’t fit! So I had to rip out stitches and do what I describe above. It would’ve saved me a lot of time (and a useless zipper) to do it that way in the first place.

The diameter of each end of my pouf is about 21-inches, and it’s about 10-inches tall. If you want to make your own slipcover obviously you’ll need to do your own measurements, but I’m telling you mine so you have an idea of how much yarn you’ll need.

Once you’re done with the slipcover, it’s time to knit! To cover my pouf, I used 2 balls of this jumbo Loops & Threads yarn in charcoal. (It was on sale for $20 a ball when I bought it, so definitely be on the lookout for sales or coupons.)

I also used a bit of smaller matching scrap yarn, scissors, and a tapestry needle. No knitting needles, though, because this was all done with arm-knitting. (Hand-knitting would be a more accurate name, though it would be confusing.)

Then I followed the basic instructions in this tutorial:

Things I did differently than the demo in the video were that I had to knit more rows then she did for the size of my pouf. And once the cover was big enough, I put it around the pouf and finished knitting it in place.

I also found that I got a lot better at the technique as I went along, so I made sure that my cast-on stitches were on the bottom side of my pouf. And when I did the last few rows, I pulled them to a smaller, tighter size around just one finger.

Obviously I skipped the stuffing parts, too.

In retrospect, I could have cast on more stitches/and or knit them larger around the sides so that they might look less stretched out, but I’m totally happy with the pouf as it is.

What do you think? I’m hoping it’ll be the perfect cozy spot to put my feet up while I’m nursing my little one.