How to Make a Toy Bean Bag for Stuffed Animals

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Our stuffed animals were taking over our house. How do you store your stuffed toys?

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I made huge toy bean bags to hold all our stuffed animals. I started writing about making the girl and boy bags below (that I made at Christmas time) then realized I had Dr. Seuss fabric laying around and a bunch of Dr. Seuss stuffed animals so I decided to make a bag today. Without windows it took me 20 minutes.
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See the stuffed animals peeking out of the mesh windows?

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HOW TO MAKE A TOY BEAN BAG:
This toy bag has a mesh window and a drawstring opening so kids can take their animals in and out. Filling it with stuffed animals makes them soft to sit on so it becomes a functional chair in their room.
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Items needed:
1 – 1.5 yard of fleece fabric (1.5 is what I used, they are a little big, they fit so many animals they get too heavy to move so I would stick to just 1 yard (of 72” fleece) you’ll need 1 yard for each side of the bag
1/2 yard of mesh fabric – there are a variety in the sports or outdoor section at the fabric store.
1.5 yard cord or rope (often found in the ribbon area)
White thread for the sewing machine, scissors, cutting mat, cereal box, pins
Directions:
Look at pictures to see how I made the toy bags. If you’d like more directions please email me with questions.
Disclosure: I’m not a great seamstress. I’ll try things that don’t require a pattern, I dislike using pins, I’ll attempt it if it has straight lines and I often have to use my seam ripper.
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I folded the fabric over to look like a rectangle. I placed a cereal box on top as my guide for the window, then cut around it.
Then I placed the mesh over each window and pinned it (it helps it stay in place as you sew). Then I cut off the selvage of the fleece (that is the bottom edge of the fabric – mine had text printed on it, you could just use some scrap fleece.  Place the 1 inch selvage or scrap strips along the edge of the mesh. Sew the selvage to the mesh and the bag fabric about .5 inch away from the window opening.
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Then turn the bag to the other side so you can sew the outside of the window. I used a zig-zag stitch right around the edge of the window to seal the mesh and window.
See pictures of a bigger mesh I used on this blue bag. See the scrap fabric strips I used for the inside of the window? This gives it so much more support and helps so you don’t have to sew right on mesh.
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After sewing both windows, sew the open edges of the bag together, leave the top open.
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Now for the draw string top.  I folded the top edge over twice (about 1.5 inch thick) to give it a nice finish. Then I sewed the bottom of the folded edge to the bag while it was inside out. 
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After I finished, I turned the bag right-side out and found the side seam near the top. I cut a small slit on each side of the seams to run my rope through. I used a large saftey pin on the end of the rope to insert into the hole and feed it through the top rim of the bag. once the other side was out I knotted each end of the bag then you can tie them in a bow.
110_1397_1 Click here to see more activities to do with stuffed animals.
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Victoria Signature 11


More fun ideas here:
Thirty Hand Made Days

4 comments:

Jackie said...

That is a clever idea! Stuffed animals can really get out of control and this would definitely help with that problem.

Unknown said...

Very cool that you made your own bags! I love that you included windows :) I sew all the time but for some reason couldn't get my mind around making my own bean bag covers... silly of me!

Elizabeth J. Neal said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Elizabeth J. Neal said...

The beanbag in XXL offers a particularly large wellness area and our garden lounger beds you like walking on clouds. Nick@HugeBeanBags

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