Sunday
Nov142010
bean bags
Sunday, November 14, 2010 at 11:38AM
One of our little favorites had a birthday party this afternoon. I wanted to make her something that would be useful for longer than most baby toys. Something that could grow with her, not be annoying or take up too much space. Somewhere, a long time ago, I ran across a blog post about making little bean bags, but I think the ones pictured were letters. 26 bags was a project too ambitious for me at the moment, and letter blocks are easy enough to come by, in any case. I decided to make, instead, a set of numbers, zero through nine. Good for tossing around now, practicing math later. I just hope my shoddy stitch-up job holds until she's ready for addition and subtraction. I hate to sew "in the ditch" so they look very homemade.
Oh well; they are.
To make them, I used felt scraps and freehanded the numbers, used quilting cotton scraps in interesting or pretty patterns for the backs, and white fleece for the fronts. The synthetic fleece isn't my ideal material, but I wanted something kind of tactile and substantial. Also, I had some lying around. The truth comes out!
I used cheap, nutritionally void white rice for the filling. Lentils would also be nice, or popcorn. They're not all the same size and they're admittedly a little wonky, but I think they'll be fun to play with. Once George gets out of his mouthing phase, I'll probably make him some, too. For this project, all I had to buy was the rice; if you're a sewer, you can probably do the same, as these don't necessitate any particular material other than hole-less (and if you're mainly sewing with mesh, I'm gonna bet you don't have children).
Happy birthday, little lady. I hope your bean bags bring you hours of happy play. And happy birthing day, mama. So far, so good.
Oh well; they are.
To make them, I used felt scraps and freehanded the numbers, used quilting cotton scraps in interesting or pretty patterns for the backs, and white fleece for the fronts. The synthetic fleece isn't my ideal material, but I wanted something kind of tactile and substantial. Also, I had some lying around. The truth comes out!
I used cheap, nutritionally void white rice for the filling. Lentils would also be nice, or popcorn. They're not all the same size and they're admittedly a little wonky, but I think they'll be fun to play with. Once George gets out of his mouthing phase, I'll probably make him some, too. For this project, all I had to buy was the rice; if you're a sewer, you can probably do the same, as these don't necessitate any particular material other than hole-less (and if you're mainly sewing with mesh, I'm gonna bet you don't have children).
Happy birthday, little lady. I hope your bean bags bring you hours of happy play. And happy birthing day, mama. So far, so good.
in makey
makey
Reader Comments (3)
I love playing with bean bags. :)
She is currently putting them in and out of her dump truck over (and over and over and over) and over again. Score one for cute homemade educational toys!! We love them, so nice to have something that isn't an eye sore and that she actually loved. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
i'm so glad she likes them! sorry if it was tacky to say that i didn't have to buy anything but the rice, but i didn't figure you'd be offended. :)
also: that dump truck is awesome.