Make your own beanbag - free sewing instructions

There is probably nothing better than to end the day in the evening in a cozy, cozy beanbag. I have now made it a habit of reading my newspaper there and drinking my coffee. Depending on the fabric you use to make your beanbag, it is also ideal as a bed for dogs and cats or as a small trampoline for your children.

Today I would like to show you how you can easily make your own beanbag yourself . All you need is various fabrics, filler and a little patience. In addition to the cotton fabric that I use for the inner bag, we need an outer fabric. The outside of the beanbag can be made of linen, canvas or simply cotton weave. It is important that the outer fabric is not stretchable, otherwise the sack will lose its shape if you sit for a long time and may have bumps in certain places.

content

• Make the beanbag yourself
  • Material and preparation
  • Measure pieces of fabric
  • preparation
• Instructions | Sew the beanbag
  • Filling the beanbag

Make the beanbag yourself

The bottom of the beanbag can also deform due to the pressure of the filling if the fabric used is stretchable. Today I take different linen fabrics for the outer bag and a waffle fabric for the bottom. Of course, everyone can make the beanbag themselves as they want.

Material and preparation

You need the following utensils to be able to make the beanbag yourself:

• Cotton jersey or woven fabric for the inner bag, approx.2.5 m
• non-elastic outer fabric (linen, woven fabric), approx.2.5 m
• Zipper for the outer bag, minimum length 60 cm!
• scissors
• pen
• ruler
• sewing machine
• Filling material (EPS balls)
• Piping tape, length approx. 3 m (can also be omitted)
• our instructions
• about 3 to 4 hours time

Difficulty level 2/5
With a little practice, even beginners can make the beanbag themselves.

Cost of materials 3/5
The EPS balls and the fabric amount to about 60 euros.

Time spent 3/5
3 to 4 hours

Measure pieces of fabric

In order to be able to make the beanbag ourselves, we need relatively large pieces of fabric . That is why I would like to explain to you exactly how you can best measure these parts.

Step 1: The first thing to do is to cut the fabric for the inner and outer sack. Both sacks will be exactly the same size so that they ultimately fit together well and the outer sack does not create any further folds.

Cut the following pieces of fabric for the inner bag:

• a hexagonal piece with a side length of 45 cm each for the floor (diagonal 90 cm) + 1 cm seam allowance for each side
• a hexagonal piece with a side length of 30 cm each for the top (diagonal 60 cm) + 1 cm seam allowance for each side
• 6 x trapezoidal strips with a lower side length of 45 cm, an upper side length of 30 cm (see drawing) and a total length of 1 m + 1 cm seam allowance for each side

ATTENTION: Do not forget to add the seam allowance of 1 cm to any of the fabric parts! This prevents the pieces from not matching at the end.

Step 2: To measure these pieces, I recommend the following procedure.

Cut the fabric to a length of 1 m and spread it out on the floor. Now start on one of the long sides and measure alternately 30 cm and 45 cm. To do this, make points on the edge so that you can connect the lines later.

Now do the same on the opposite side. These points are now connected by lines .

ATTENTION: When you mark the 30 cm for the first time, you are already moving 7.5 cm inwards, since the six pieces of fabric have to be cut to a trapezoid shape!

TIP: To connect the lines, take a thread that you stretch between the points. It is advisable to use a family member for measuring so that the thread cannot move.

To measure the two hexagons, fold two 39 cm x 45 cm and 26 cm x 30 cm squares. The fabric is folded twice and is therefore four times.

Now move on the shorter side of the folding point for the large square 22.5 cm, for the small square 15 cm inwards and mark the point.

Now connect this with the diagonally opposite corner point.

This corner can now be cut away. So you get a hexagon with 45 cm or 30 cm side length.

A hexagon is very difficult to mark and cut on the fabric in any other way.

preparation

Step 1: When you have cut all eight parts of the inner fabric, also cut all 8 fabric parts from the outer fabric.

TIP: I decided to use two different colors for the outer part of the beanbag. I cut 3x strips from color A and 3x strips from color B. I cut the two hexagons out of two other fabrics.

In this way, the “seat side ” differs from the back of the beanbag at the end. Of course, you can also cut the stripes of the sack from different colors and arrange them alternately so that the sack is streaked at the end.

Step 2: We still need a zipper for the outer bag so that we can pull it down and wash it if necessary. Cut the zipper to a minimum length of 60 cm. It would be better to use a longer zipper. The shorter the zipper, the more difficult it will be to fill the filled inner bag into the outer bag later.

Step 3: If you want to use a piping tape, cut it approx. In a length of 2.80 m to 2.90 m.

Instructions | Sew the beanbag

Let's go to the sewing machine! We start with the inner bag, so we need our 8 fabric parts of - in my case - white and red inner fabric.

Step 1: First, the six trapezoidal strips of fabric are sewn together. To do this, lay the long sides or edges of the strips on top of each other on the right and pin everything with needles or clips so that the fabrics cannot slip.

ATTENTION: The 45 cm long sides are always on the same side and the 30 cm long sides on the other side. This creates a tube when sewing together, which widens towards the bottom.

Step 2: Now sew all 6 strips of fabric together.

Depending on the fabric, you can use an elastic stitch (zigzag stitch of the sewing machine, overlock) or a non-elastic stitch (straight stitch of the sewing machine).

This is what your first sewing result looks like!

Step 3: You should now have a rock-shaped hose in front of you. We now put the larger hexagon on the opening of the hose, at which the edge lengths are 45 cm.

Place the right sides of the fabric on top of each other and pin the edges with clips or needles.

Sew around the edges once.

Step 4: The smaller hexagon is now also pinned to the top of the smaller opening in the hose.

Sew only 5 sides of the hexagon here and leave one side open so that we can turn and fill the sack .

Step 5: Before we fill the inner bag, we sew the outer bag. As with the inner bag, sew the trapezoidal strips together here.

ATTENTION: The zipper is sewn in before the last page closes.

To do this, place it on one of the fabric sides, right to right, and pin it in place.

To sew it on, change the foot of your sewing machine and use the zipper foot provided.

Topstitch the first page with a straight stitch.

Now place the second right side of the zipper on the other strip of fabric and pin or sew it on.

To close the last page completely, put the strips of fabric back together on the right and sew from both sides up to the zipper.

When you have reached the zipper, you can also make a 2 to 3 cm long cross seam so that there are no holes between the zipper and the beginning of the seam.

The sewn-in zipper now shows as in the following picture.

Now, in the next steps, close the seam around the zipper.

Your nutritional result is now shown as in our pictures.

Your sewn-in zipper, between the two pieces of fabric, is ready.

Step 6: Sew the small hexagon back to the hose, right to right. We do not need a turning opening here, because we can turn the outer bag through the zip on the beautiful fabric side. For the larger hexagon, I decided to sew in a piping tape to give our beanbag a visual kick.

To do this, place the piping tape between the two layers of fabric so that the round end of the tape looks inwards.

At the beginning or end, place both ends of the tape diagonally one above the other and fix it with a clip or a needle.

Now sew around the hexagon.

The piping tape should now be nicely sewn between the two layers of fabric.

Your sewn seam now looks like the following picture.

The sewn-in piping tape.

Apply the beanbag fabric to the right side of the fabric .

Your beanbag turned on the right with its bottom or bottom side.

Filling the beanbag

One of the most difficult steps in the manufacture of a beanbag is filling. Depending on the filling you use, it can take quite a long time to get the entire filling in the sack.

I decided to fill it with EPS beads (small styrofoam balls) because the quality of the beanbag is the best. It does not lose its shape, the balls are relatively stable and do not have to be replaced for years. Although the EPS beads are probably the most expensive variant of the filling, I am convinced that it is worth digging a little deeper here.

Step 1: Since the balls charge very easily magnetically and like to stick to hands and clothes, you should fill them very slowly and carefully. I use my measuring cup from the kitchen.

Fill it with the beads and then pour into the inner bag.

This variant is extremely time-consuming (approx. 45 min), but ensures that almost no balls are lost.

TIP: If you have a family member on hand, you can also pour the EPS beads directly into the inner sack.

Step 2: The sack should only be filled to approx. 75 to 80%, otherwise it will become too stiff and hardly deform when sitting.

TIP: I calculated the size of the beanbag so that a volume of 200 liters should be enough for one filling!

When you have filled all balls, close the turning opening of the inner bag with the sewing machine.

Step 3: Now the filled inner bag comes into the outer bag. Be careful here that you do not tear a hole in the sack with the zipper, otherwise the filling can easily become independent.

As soon as the inner bag is completely in the outer bag, pluck the corners and close the zipper.

Voilà - our beanbag is ready ! I wish you good luck and a lot of fun!