A few months ago I made these bean bags for the kids to play with. They LOVE them! They play with them almost every weekend – especially if Daddy is around to throw them at! So here’s the tutorial to make yours:
Step 1
Start with a variety of squares. Mine were scraps from an I-spy quilt all cut to be 5″x 5″.
Step 2
Put two of your squares right sides together.
Step 3
Stitch around all the edges leaving a gap of about 2 inches to turn.
Step 4
Clip the corners.
Step 5
Turn through and press.
Step 6
Top stitch 1/8″ from the edge leaving the gap open for filling.
Step 7
Fill with “beans”. You can use any type of beans or rice. I used large bird seed because it was cheap.
Step 8
Pin the hold the seeds in while you topstitch the gap closed.
I have seen beanbags with appliqued letters and numbers on them so that you can play learning games with them too. You’d want to do your applique at Step 2 before you stitch them together. You can find some ideas of games to play with your new bean bags at the Activity Village.
what a lovely tutorial, and a very sweet blog!
As the former bean bag champion of my grade school junior olympics, I can tell you officially that those are wonderful beanbags!!!
Great tutorial. Never thought of using bird seed! Like it. Thanks for sharing!
These are super cute. I remember playing with bean bags in elementary school, but the ones at school were pretty disgusting and musty! They also weren't anywhere as adorable as these!!
I think even I can do this thank you for sharing the tuturial I would like to sew but I am not good at it. I wish I had this idea at the beginning of summer. Well it's not tolate
I use to make these all the time for my girls when they were little. Just like yours. my kids also played with them constantly.
I love the fabric you used!
Thanks for sharing this great tutorial with us at Anything Related!
{Rebekah}
Very cute!! and very clever to use sunflower seeds!! 🙂 I am visiting from Sassy Sites. Come on by and say HI! I love your blog! So many great ideas! I'm a new follower… 🙂
I can't wait to make these for my nephew!
I actually made a bag for my cat. I filled it with rice and catnip – it's her favorite toy! And was soooo easy to make.
Thanks for such a great tutorial about how to make bean bags. I wish that I would have had this before Christmas last year. I did some and they didn't turn out so well. Thanks for linking up to Tuesday Tell All.
I love them. I'm planning on making a few of these and filling them with rice. You can microwave them at 10 second intervals for 30 seconds for a warm pack…or, put them in a baggie and freeze for a cool pack. Perfect for little kid owies and bumps.
I love them. I'm planning on making a few of these and filling them with rice. You can microwave them at 10 second intervals for 30 seconds for a warm pack…or, put them in a baggie and freeze for a cool pack. Perfect for little kid owies and bumps.
Great idea, Whitney & McKayla! And I love the cat toy version, Helby 🙂
I love your color choices! Great tute, too. When my son was younger, we used to play all sorts of games with bean bags, and would laugh until our sides hurt. I'm sure I could still get him to play parallel-catch if I asked him. Thanks for linking!
Question-Is the topstitching for looks or for strength? LOVE these 🙂
Hi Ocean, The topstitching closes up the hole where you've filled the bean bags, and also reinforces all the edges – I don't want my seeds coming out as the kids throw these around! I also think it makes them look finished.
Exactly what I was looking for! I shall be making some of these to hold down my lampshades when I display them for market. Thank you!
Great project! I just wanted to let you know that we featured this project on our Facebook page with almost 12,000 fans. We’d love it if you’d use our Featured Blogger button, available at: http://www.dailycraft.com/thank-you-for-crafting/. Our audience loved the project and we look forward to sharing more from you. Please let us know if you have any questions or projects you’d love us to feature! Thanks!