That’s what Tuesday is calling beanbags these days, poofs. I decided to make a giant poof for my sweetest littlest clients: the newborns. Originally I thought the big FatBoy bean bag we got would work, but it’s just too floppy and not filled enough. Plus Tuesday adopted that for her room. I looked into buying something but once I realized how silly easy this was to make I jumped into the project.
I found a tutorial on a photography forum website I belong to (Clickin Moms). But now that I’ve made this I can say you really don’t need a tutorial. It’s two big circles of material (a fabric backed vinyl) and a long rectangle piece for the sidewall (you can piece this, I did). You can see I added a handle since I’ll be taking this around and hid the velcro by folding over an edge of the material. There is no inner bag.
Mine is huge and took 4.5 bags of “beans” that flew everywhere and static clung to everything! This is about 43″ in diameter and 15″ tall. A note about the material. I chose a supple kind of vinyl but I’ll caution you against this if you’re just going to use it alone for a bean bag to play on. I think it could get torn or scratched easily. I chose it because I need to be able to clean off baby messes and I knew I was going to cover it. I have a bunch of blankets I use, but I just couldn’t resist and had to make this as well:
A big baby posing bean bag poof of happiness is what this is! A mom I worked with this weekend told me she loved the colors she saw on my site and I was inspired to come up with something fun for her newborn’s shoot. I used a wedge shape from this Amy Butler pattern (using a little math and a muslin pattern piece I tweaked it to fit). The bottom has a simple casing and some elastic.
I don’t know what to do about the middle, ideas? I guess I wasn’t paying too much attention to the pattern after all. It doesn’t matter for shoots since baby covers the hole, but I think I’ll leave the cover on when it’s out in the basement. A huge beige blob just isn’t my thing. Reinforcement might be nice.
And I haven’t been doing sneaks, but a cute baby really does take this to the next level…
The baby this weekend tipped the scales in my uterus. Seriously. It was like, “maybe you do want another baby?” And I was like, “okay… maybe I do.”
(hey grandparents: I SAID MAYBE!)
The bean bag is perfect for newborns and I love the fun fabric on top, I would never have thought to make one myself and of course you did! With that said… I love the newborn photo… perfect! and “maybe” is better than absolutely never!
oh goodness.
that cover is amazing.
are you SURE you don’t want to skip your scrapbooking weekend to fly to chicago w/the beanbag and tuesday and your camera??? 😉
That is seriously cool. And I have to admit that the baby is almost enough to make me want another one, too. So precious! Good thing we’ve taken care of that here. 🙂
Those are awesome. You are so talented and creative.
this looks awesome, love the one tuesday is sitting on!
The kids really want bean bag chairs now…I’m worried if I made them, they wouldn’t be sturdy enough for their playing (as you saw…lol). I do have an amy butler pattern for more of a footstool than a baby poof. But I think she just put a hexagon in the middle to cover it up? I don’t remember exactly….
you are the most amazing crafter EVER. you made that?! seriously, why does your insane craftiness not rub off on me? i love that poof!
also, what about a hexagon in the middle? maybe a solid color?
How about a cool fabric covered button for the center of the beanbag?
That precious baby would make anyone want a baby! I love the colors. Now you can make different color covers to throw over it! Ha! Great Job!
Oh my goodness!! Thanks for doing the sneak peek, it’s wonderful!
oh my gosh! I have been talking about making a bean bag for ages!!! Now that you have done it I have to get my act together and make one too!! I really love the colorful wedge pattern you used! Nice idea with the Elastic too! Endless possibilities! You could just sew a circle over the top to cover the little hole 🙂 I am all about shortcuts…so maybe a more experienced sewer has an idea 🙂
I forgot to say I LOVE the newborn photo.
Mary,
This one is really sturdy. I used 2″ wide velcro and I think it would be hard to accidentally have it come apart from jumping.
I love the hexagon idea, ok who wants to make me one? I think a button might be a little hard for tiny babies.
O….M….G…. that baby is too cute!!! My uterus just skipped a beat….
Gorgeous! I had looked through that tut, and didn’t realize it was so large… might size it down a bit when I make mine! Or… leave it giant and probably end up just using it in my living room haha!
I would just make a fabric yoyo and sew it down over your center hole, or even just a circle turned under and appliqued on… I love the fabric choices!
I think mine turned out a little bigger (when I was using the pen/string trick to trace the circle I pulled too tight I think), but ya, it’s a pretty big bean bag! I’m so glad I added a handle, it would be pretty funny to see me hauling out to my car otherwise!
Great idea and awesome photo! The fabrics worked great together and look wonderful with an adorable newborn in the center.