How to Make a Toy Bean Bag for Stuffed Animals

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


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.


See the stuffed animals peeking out of the mesh windows?



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.
 
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.

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.

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.

After sewing both windows, sew the open edges of the bag together, leave the top open.

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. 

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.
 Click here to see more activities to do with stuffed animals.




More fun ideas here:

Best Books for Boys: Book Review

My five-year-old son is currently learning sight-words.  We read plenty of picture books together but I’m trying to figure out the next step to help him learn to love reading.
 
How Do You Get Boys to Love Reading and What Books Should They Try?

I was thrilled to see this new book from Scholastic, Pam Allyn’s Best Books for Boys (K-8). How to Engage Boys in Reading in Ways That Will Change Their Lives.

Pam is also a mom and literacy advocate. She is the Executive Director of LitLife and LitWorld, organizations developing strategies for children’s literacy on the national and global level. In this book she focuses on strategies to encourage boys to love reading. Just what I was looking for.

I had heard friends say that it was harder to get boys reading than girls and Pam shares a list of statistics supporting that boys do struggle with reading more. Because of that, she founded and directs an initiative called Books for Boys and created this book for teachers and parents to use as a guide. 

Pam gives a variety of modern tips about how to engage boys in reading. She suggests books aren’t the only things we should have boys read. Additional reading options include video games, texting, sports page/magazines, websites and blogs.  Anything that interests them, encourage them to keep reading. Surround them with words. We also shouldn’t stereotype books into gender as it is just as fine for boys to read Anne of Green Gables as much as Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  Find out what they are interested in and find something they can read about it.

Pam presents the “READ Model” including four elements to create a love of reading.

R- Ritual

E – Environment

A- Access

D- Dialogue

We need to create a reading environment, make reading accessible, make reading a habit and talk about what we are reading.

The final and largest section of the book, Pam shares her favorite books for boys by reading level and genre. Starting with Flat Stanley for emerging readers, she gives a description of each book she suggests and gives a discussion or activity idea to go with each book.

This book was very well organized and will be a great reference book to use now and as my son grows older. Pam Allyn’s Best Books for Boys is a much needed resource for anyone teaching boys to read. After reading this book, I can’t wait to check out the books Pam suggests for emerging readers. I’ve already put several books on hold at the library that I hadn’t heard of.
 
CREATING A READING ENVIRONMENT:
 
I loved how Pam separated her picks into categories so much that I decided to organize the books in my son’s room by genre so he could find his favorite books better.
I grabbed some containers from IKEA and grouped his books into categories. 
     Box #1 – Trucks, Trains and Cars
     Box #2 – Dinosaurs and Animals
     Box #3 – Story books, Pirates and Lego
     Box #4 – Superhero books, Star Wars and Firefighters

He has a transportation themed room so we have the alphabet train (a classroom border) along the wall so we can play letter games and recite the alphabet together. (Anything to get more letters around him.)

I found some pictures on Google Images to match my categories and printed them out. Some were outline images I had my son color to get him involved. Then I helped him sound out the words to match the pictures and put them on the boxes.

What are your favorite boy books?  My son has been on a pirate kick lately.

Disclosure: I was sent a free electronic copy of Pam Allyn’s Best Books for Boys. All opinions are truthful and my own.


Linking this idea to more great ideas at: