Am new to sewing, and stuff. How easy is a bean bag?

[LovingtheSilverFox]

I am thinking forward that soon we may not have enough seating, and thought bean bags could be the way to go. How easy are they? I am a very fairly amateur sewer stitcher so any advice would be appreciated. Also advice on suitable fabrics would be great, I am thinking fairly neutral colours, and they will need to be hard wearing as DD1 is 3 yo and DTs and 8 months.

Thank you in anticipation.

They're really really easy- just don't make them too big and remember to make the lining of strong fabrics (not like me who made one that explodedbeans everywhere when dd jumpedon it. Old duvet covers work brilliantly.

I might try this, what do you fill them with? Specially designed bean bag stuff or is there a cheaper alternative?
Does anyone have a pattern to share?

I know there is something called poly beads, which are the foamy things, but have no idea how much they cost, or if anything else works as well.

Alice in the Vicar of Dibley used cooked pasta to fill her stuffed toys......

here is a tutorial for a beanbag chair

I made an oblong cuboidal shaped bag stuffed with foam off cuts which has the bonus that is swishes rather then explodes when hyperactive ds (4) jumps on it. Plus it was easier then finding patterns and odd shapes. He loves it and the foam off cuts are less expensive then bean bag beads.

Thanks for that, I'll add it to the list of projects to be done!

Thanks for the help, where would I look for foam off cuts? And would corduroy be a suitable fabric?

Yep you could use cordroy. I've used a plasticky material. One tip is to make sure you make and inner and outer so that the outer can ber removed to be washed (very useful with little boys) Also double stich the seams (helps to prevent explosions if you go for bean bag beans)

I got my off cuts from my local fabric shop (abrican) I would recommend asking places that sell foam pads for making seat cusions etc if they do offcuts.
Hope that is some help.