Beanbag Buddies

Bean Bag Buddies is a brilliant little book that shows how to make an assortment of cute "beanbag" toys. It has step by step instructions throughout (I am a great lover of step by step instructions, especially when there are decent photos accompanying them). The patterns are all included and they are simple and easy to follow. I enjoy making things and trying my hand at new stuff and my kids enjoy having handmade goodies so it is a win-win when I find something that I can make for them. There is even a dragon in there that I am going to have to make for The Hubbie when I have time.

So far I have made two of the designs:

For my son

BeanBagBoy

This little guy is a bean bag, with character. Stitched by hand, mainly due to how small most of the pieces are, he took me an afternoon to make from start to finish. He is a little unusual, but then so is my son, so it kinda works. By far the hardest part of BeanBagBoy was getting the head attached to the body, but it is securely attached which is important since little hands don't think about the stitching. However I'm pleased with the finished product.

For my daughter

The Bear

The Bear was all hand sewn as well. The Bear was quite fiddly but again relatively easy. If I do another I think I would stuff it a bit more as he looks quite limp, but it does give him a bit of a cute dopey look. I used velvet for The Bear as this was what was suggested, but honestly the stuff is ghastly to work with. I had purple fluff everywhere and it is tough to sew.  It works in the end because it has added texture, but next time I think I will probably use a soft fleece or something similar.

All in all, I enjoyed making them and I think they are quite cute, will definitely be making some more in times to come.