Sunday, November 28, 2010

Bean bags step by step

I will apologize ahead of time to anyone who actually sews out there, this is not the best job but I googled lots to figure out how to do these :) This one tonight took me 20 minutes to make from choosing fabric to final product (with taking pictures). You do not have to put a letter on them you could just do plain bean bags the young kids don't even notice the letters but the older ones have been having tons of fun spelling with them. I used an inside bean bag so I would know for sure no beans would escape since I have young children playing with them. I made these to help Alex with spelling and to introduce Wyatt to letters. I think they will be a fun learning tool for the boys. 

Supplies I used to make the bean bags, my sewing machine (you can do it by hand too but I am lazy), white navy beans, muslin, 2 different materials to use for the bean bag and letter, scissors, a rotary cutter and mat, measuring cup, a cut out of a letter.

I cut the muslin (for the inside bean bag) into 4X4 squares and the fabric for the outside of the bean bag was cut into 5X5 squares.

I traced the letter on the back side of the material and cut it out.

I pinned the letter onto the front of the bean bag (you can also use iron on backing to keep the letter on the material while you sew) then sewed the letter on the front of the bean bag.

I sewed the inside bean bag and left a hole to put the beans in.

added a 1/4 cup of white navy beans then sewed the top shut.

Put together the front and back of the bean bag with good sides facing each other then sew around the edges leaving a hole to put the inside bean bag in.

Turn the outside of the bean bag right side out and add the inside bean bag.

Sew the outside edges and the bean bag is done :)


I hope you enjoy. I am new to sewing and had no problem at all making 33 of these. I tried to have all the bean bags have some kind of different texture to them. I used so many different materials some were minky, cotton, corduroy, pleather, flannel, fleece, and more but I don't remember them all .. lol

I would love to do a whole set with the letters coordinating with the fabric such as C is for cat with cats on the material or D is for dog. I have a couple done in this set and hope to add some more to it after Christmas.

3 comments:

Parent and Child Reading Assistance said...

I love these! Nice work.

Kim said...

Thanks, they were my first attempt at making them and the kids love them :)

Mommy on the go! said...

These are really cute!