Easy Handmade Toys – Felt Bean Bags
When it comes to making little kiddos smile or offering them something that will captivate them for hours, simple toys are often the best. Keeping the games as easy as tossing a bean bag and giving them soft textures such as felt make it all that more fun. When you head out to find bean bags, though, they can be hard to find and the ones out there are filled with plastic and other goo that you may not want around.
Thankfully, you don’t have to be a master seamstress (you only need one simple stitch) to make your own soft, lovely collection of bean bags that are both fun and pretty. We made a whole bunch of these in a few days and they now work for everything from tossing across the room to pillows for owls and beds for fairies. Kids imaginations are awesome.
Here’s what you need:
- Your favorite colors of felt
- A heavy gauge needle and embroidery thread
- Dried beans
- Scissors
Directions:
1. Cut out sets of squares in different sizes
2. Then, take your needle and thread and use a straight stitch to close up three sides. Use a short stitch that shows when you are finished. I’m told the straight stitch is the most secure so that the beans will be secure inside. If you are concerned about choking you can use fabric glue to seal the sides of the bean bag before stitching.
3. Fill with beans and stitch up the last side.
That’s it. These have provided for hours of fun in our house, are a great way to use up leftover scraps of fabric and are actually pretty darn relaxing to make.
Enjoy!
Category: ARTS & LITERACY, Crafts
About the Author (Author Profile)
Robin Rivers is Our Big Earth’s Publisher and Sr. Partner. Able to survive on coffee alone. Often can be found leaping tall buildings with the help of great friends. Predisposed to odd hats and the color orange. In love with imagination, her kids and that crazy guy who married her.Subscribe
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Wonderful and timely! We are looking to make lots of these to toss around – they have been suggested as an effective way to keep hands busy while chanting, or singing, memorisation tasks such as the multiplication table. Especially good for those like Mr. D. and his ADHD – gotta move to learn, my little kinesthetic boy.
Thanks – they now look really simple. Maybe he can sew some himself, even?
Cheers,
Great idea! We made them in little hearts, squares, and circles.