Friday, January 30, 2009

Beanbag Tutorial


These beanbags are made from felt or fleece--your choice--as both materials do not fray when cut & it makes for a quick project! The other materials you'll need are: fabric, scissors, marker, ruler, contrasting thread, a sewing machine &...


...popcorn. Ok, so mine are not TECHNICALLY "bean" bags. But use what you have: beans, small pasta, rice, etc.


You can make whatever size you want. Mine are made by cutting 2 four-inch square pieces of felt/fleece.

Take one piece of felt/fleece & draw the design that will be the cut-out where the fabric will show through. As you can see, mistakes are perfectly fine. This will be on the inside of the beanbag, so it won't even show.

Cut out your design.


Choose a piece of fabric & cut it smaller than the square, but large enough to cover the cut-out design. Make sure you lay it on top of the felt with the right side facing through the design.

Sew the fabric to the felt/fleece. I stitched as close to the edge as I could.


I actually stitched around a few times in a random haphazard way. It started out as a mistake, & then I realized I liked it.

Next, sandwich your 2nd piece of felt/fleece to the back of the cut-out felt/fleece. Stitch around 3 sides, leaving about 1/4" seam allowance.


Fill your beanbag with the beans. Or popcorn. Or the lentils that have been sitting in the back of your pantry for 2 years. I used about 1/3 CUP. The tiny people like to help with this part. And just have your broom handy.


Sew up the last side & trim up any uneven edges. Or leave the edges all nifty & askew. It's up to you.


One beanbag down! That took less than 10 minutes to make.
I made up the star beanbags with the Kindergarten girls last night in my Daisies group at church. I did the hard part first & they helped me sew the edges & fill it with beans. Look, I even made a personalized one! My nephew will love it!
The dark grey & purple beanbags in the middle row were both made using felt. The others are fleece.

My girls & their sparkly shoes. I gotta get me some.


My girls & I tested the beanbags out.



Yep. They work.
I was thinking that you could even do the cut-outs on both sides. What about making the beanbags to spell out a word or someone's name? What about scented beanbags, adding a bit of lavender (or etc.) to your beans? And, of course, you could embellish the beanbag heck out of 'em too!

Next on my list of things to do is to find silly fun stuff to do WITH the beanbags!
Here's a link I found to get started...
UPDATE: Custom beanbags now available in the shop!

33 comments:

  1. What a cute Idea for the kids. Thank you for sharing. I love those sparkle shoes to my daughter has a pair. We got last week I put a picture in my blod to. Thanks again. I just love your blogs

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  2. I was thinking doing some A, B, C ones for a baby gift. Maybe making them bigger for babies and possibly big enough to stack??? I have been thinking about doing this lately, so thanks for the tut...you know I always love them! ~Kara

    Ps. I got my cute little package yesterday..I will blog about it soon;o)

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  3. Those are adorable!!! How did it go making them with the Daisy troop? I've got a Daisy troop, too, and I'm always looking for fun crafts to do.

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  4. Hi Wendy,
    I sewed the cut-out design onto the felt & then the girls helped me push the pedal to the sewing metal to stitch up the first 3 sides. (They'd push it down & I'd tell them when to stop.) They filled 'em up with beans & then helped me sew the last opening closed. (If they wanted, they could carefully help me guide the fabric through while the needle stitched everything up.)
    We had played a beanbag game earlier in class--where the girls tossed the bag in circle saying one word of the memory verse--& I then I surprised them by telling them that we'd be making our own beanbags.

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  5. These are so cute with the cut out design! I was planning on making some, but mine were just going to be plain squares or heart shaped ones. Now I've got some more things to think about, how fun.

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  6. Those are so darling! I have added them to my list of fun crafts I want to try!

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  7. I have never seen your blog before, but it sure is cute!! I'll be back for sure:)

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  8. Good stuff . Even letters for teaching little ones the alphabet ?
    clares craftroom

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  9. Super cute idea! If only I sewed...

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  10. What a great idea. I like the monogrammed one. Thanks for the idea!

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  11. Great idea! I have a daycare in my home and that is a great way to do the alaphebet or numbers or shapes. The possibilites are endless...now if only I had the time! Thanks again!

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  12. These are GREAT! Thanks for the idea. They're going on my 2009 Christmas checklist for sure. Ü Love your blog!!

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  13. I love this tutorial! I linked to it from my post today.

    Kimba

    http://asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com/2009/01/saturday-linky-love_31.html

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  14. My daughter has both the shoes your girls have... she got the lighter pink ones after she outgrew the darker ones!

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  15. Thanks for this great tutorial. We made a a tic-tac-toe game themed for Valentine's Day!!

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  16. Great idea - thank you for sharing it.

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  17. I love them, they are SOOO cute!! The cut out really make a big difference, so whimsical!

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  18. I absolutely love this idea! I can't wait until I get a sewing machine. I will definitely be making some of these (with not-so-girly fabrics of course) for my 2 nephews--great gift idea!

    These can definitely be made with letters and numbers, and it'd be especially great if you can find fabric with pictures of things that start with the corresponding letter, etc.

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  19. These are adorable! Thank you for the tutorial!

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  20. I made these for a toy swap a few weeks ago. Check them out.http://3inunder3.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/swap/
    I thought they'd be fun for Bozo buckets.

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  21. Here via Crafty Crow - I was just about to start making beanbags with applique letters - but LOVE your cut out idea! Thank you for sharing!

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  22. Great little bean bags! Definitely going on my list for Christmas 2009 :)

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  23. Hiya, love your idea and I've had a go at making a few for my little man. He'll love them I'm sure. I've linked back to your tutorial so others can check it out :)

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  24. followed over from Missie Krissie... I love these might have to give em a go tonight.... thanx for the tut.

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  25. thanks for another great tutorial. we totally love them!

    http://www.thecleanplateclub.net/2009/02/crafty-goodness-bean-bags.html

    : )

    kate

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  26. Oh man -- this is such a great project! I made some for my boys and they've been having a blast with them. I blogged about it here: http://wendolonia.com/blog/2009/03/02/beanbags/

    Thanks for the wonderful idea!

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  27. Thank you so much - after my first sewing lesson, I was looking for something simple to make and these were fantastic. I'm so proud of myself - grin grin- honestly, check them out.....http://ellaandizzy.blogspot.com/

    Thank you!
    Alison

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  28. These turned out so wonderful! Thank you so much for the inspiration and the popcorn idea was pure brilliance! Blogged about here: http://untilwednesdaycalls.blogspot.com/2009/08/bean-bag-fun.html

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  29. I have your great tutorial link on my post about games! Those beanbags are adorable and unique. Chels
    http://fantasticfind.blogspot.com/2009/08/fantastic-friday-814-let-games-begin.html

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  30. I am very thankful of your post, it gives me an idea how i can modify my bean bag sofa to make it look awesome again.

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  31. I really love this idea. I am going to make some for a community group I am part of for kids games at events - letters can spell out the name of the group :-) Just so happened I picked up a remnant of purple fleece last week AND I have a massive bag of out of date split peas for filling.

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  32. I just wanted to share our bean bags with you. I've already got requests from family to make more for their children.

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  33. I made these yesterday and today for my children .
    I've linked to this page on my blog post about it.
    Thank you for sharing the tutorial :)

    X x

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