Anatomy of a Tuffet

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my Tuffet blog post! I really enjoyed making it. My teacher, Kerin Ferrin, is the Tuffet Master. Check out her Facebook page. If you are interested in making a tuffet, here is some information on how the tuffet top is constructed. All you need to be able to do is sew a straight line. It's not hard at all, but I would definitely recommend taking a class because the assembly of the tuffet (the second class) is a cross between upholstering and furniture making.

The pattern we used in class is by Tuffet Source. It is foundation pieced on fusible interfacing. The interfacing is fused to muslin. I started with a jelly roll of Kaffe Fassett fabrics that was in my stash. I was disappointed when I opened it in class to discover that the edges of the strips were pinked and that there were two strips of each design, rather than 40 unique strips. I was also expecting the colors to be the more vibrant royal blues and emerald greens but they were more aqua and turquoise. I ended up raiding my stash for some other Kaffe fabrics to supplement the jelly roll. Because my jelly roll didn't have forty different fabrics in it, I decided to make my panels in two identical sets of eight fabrics (16 fabrics in total). You need eight panels to make a tuffet.

Here is the beginning of a panel. You start with the center seam.

These are the first two pieces of fabric in my panel which correspond to fabrics four and five.

I numbered my strips so I would remember what order to sew them in. Thankfully I took this picture because I took the numbers off as I sewed them.

 

Kerin made sure that we each finished at least one panel in our first class. Our homework was to make the other seven panels and assemble them! She did promise that if we came to the second class with all our panels made, we would go home with a finished tuffet.

After completing my first panel and understanding the foundation piecing technique, I opted to assembly line sew my remaining panels. This helped me keep my colors in order.

Post-it notes are one of my favorite sewing notions!

We got to use power tools in class including an electric knife and an electric staple gun! I loved the electric staple gun! It was essential in constructing the tuffet.

The unknown Tuffet Maker!

Yes, my hair was purple for two weeks... long story... But it did coordinate nicely with my tuffet!

I want to make another tuffet soon.

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy