DIY Fantastic: Houndstooth Bean Bag Cover

Today I am sharing a project that has been in the works for, ahem...years!!! In all honesty once I knuckled down to the sewing last weekend, it was done in a day. There is nothing super complicated about it, lots of long straight lines of sewing, so quite straightforwards. But it just took me time to drag the pieces out from behind the sofa and just sew them together, you know! But am I glad I did, this is the perfect addition to the living room and is such a cosy spot to sit and read or get the prime spot in front of the tv for the winter olympics!

Now we were lucky to inherit a huge bean bag from a friend years ago, thanks Saff! It's super comfortable for lounging around on or as an extra flexible seating when we have friends over. But, it is made of black pvc, so a little bit bachelor-esque! I found some really fun upholstery fabric with a bit of stretch back at a Design Guild warehouse sale some time ago which I though would be perfect to cover it. It's quite a busy pattern and not to pale - important given it's going to be on the floor!! :s

What you'll need is...

1. Fabric - chose anything you fancy - the brighter and bolder the better! I used a thick upholstery material from the Design Guild. I'd recommend something durable, with a little bit of stretch and enough pattern to make it less delicate!
2. Needle and thread and a sewing machine
3. Fabric scissors
4. Newspaper or other paper for creating the pattern
5. ....

Oh and of course - a bean bag! Although while I say that, it's actually not necessarily true. In fact you can get the polystyrene balls that the are made of and fill your own bag up with them. Just have to make sure there are no holes for the polystyrene balls to get out of!

First off we had to make a pattern. The original bag was made up of 5 long panels running all around with a large hexagon for the bottom and small one at the top! We used newspaper to trace the panels of the beanbag and cut them out in the paper. A bit of experimentation to ensure we could get all the sections to fit from the material we had and off we went with the cutting. Here's the dream-cutting-team in action, thanks Mum and Izzy!

Next we actually overlocked all the way round each panel. The fabric was quite prone to fraying so we overlocked it to keep it all together. But this isn't essential, it totally depends on the material you squirrel out! We then pinned together each panel and sewed them together, adding one panel at a time around the small hexagon and finally sewing together to create the final shape. At the end I added the two panels that made up the bottom hexagon, overlapping slightly in the middle to create a flap and an opening.

 Then all it remains for you to do is turn the whole thing inside out and stuff the bean bag inside. Now I don't have any pictures of this stage as to be completely honest I needed four arms to get the bean bag stuffed in. It's not coming out in a hurry! I used some velcro patches on the base of the bag to close the gap and plopped myself down to enjoy the view!

It also turns out that bean bags are ridiculously hard to photograph, it's almost impossible to stop it from looking like a large pile of fabric dumped down in the corner. You'll have to use your imagination for the rest!

But ah, doesn't that look like an appealing spot for a rest, a cuppa and a little read? You'll know where to find me when I've gone missing! :)