These fleece bean bags were super simple to sew! The slightly-stretchy fleece
makes great bean bag material, and by stitching a half-inch in on this no-fray fabric I was able to sew them quickly on the machine – no hand stitching these! I filled them with poly pellets
so that they can be washed, if need be. They were made from the scraps of the fun fleece print that I used to make soft lounge pants for the girls a couple years ago. See, fabric hoarding pays off! =)
Here are a few ways we like to play with bean bags:
- Indoor “snowball” fights
- Target practice – throw them in buckets, or a spot on the wall or floor
- Use them as pillows for dolls (and beds for small dolls)
- Practice juggling – Mike is good at this, the rest of us are vying for the title of “top klutz”
- Use as stepping stones in an imaginary river – don’t fall in!
What are your favorite bean bag games?
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Now I know what to do with some of the fabric I’ve been hoarding! :)
Sunnyboy will love having some beanbags!
We love bean bags! And bean bags I can sew on a machine would be lovely. Yay for fabric hoarding!
Clever! I wouldn’t have thought of stepping stones as a use for beanbags. They are a very versatile toy, and yours are cute and soft!
Oooh, I’m so going to make some of these for some indoor winter fun!
We love ours!
They look great! I want to make some bean bags here with Anna’s help.
The picture of your girls in the fleece pants – SO CUTE!!!
The bean-bags are such a great idea for all kinds of winter indoor ACTIVE fun! Other activities – playing catch, maybe hot potato, taking turns object, I was thinking they would make great Valentine’s gifts for children especially if they were heart shaped, sand bags for when your dolls are having a flood, my ideas are getting silly I better stop!
LOVE your ideas! Keep ’em coming =)
This is my level of sewing, a couple of short, straight lines. What’s not to love about toys that encourage throwing?
Those look awesome! I like that they are a quick project, and they look so soft. Thanks for sharing Maryanne!
Love the soft bean bags…my kids have been making bean bags like crazy…now I need to use them for some fun learning!
I’ll join you in the top klutz award for juggling. It always impresses me when someone is good at it.
Thanks for the reminder that I have to make mine! Last summer I bought frisbees on clearance at Michael’s for .10 — and was going to print numbers to put in them for a bean bag toss game.
Need to get busy! LOL!
That would be a great bean bag game!
We like the indoor snowball fights!
Those are cute bean bags! Mine are made of hideous, horrible leftover fabric from the 70s! We use them for tossing into a bucket, mostly. At Christmas I used them for a bean bag jingle bell toss game I made. My 3.5 year old likes to put them on the floor and step on them. The beans feel good under his feet.
They do provide a great sensory experience! Your jingle bell toss game sounds like fun!