Bean Bag Beds

I recently made three VERY large bean bag beds and thought I'd tell all of blog land about it!

First I needed to locate a bunch of beans for filling them. Now, if you look around you will notice that they are extremely expensive! E-bay has them for about $30 PLUS shipping for 11 cu ft!! I figured I would need 30 + per bag soooo. .. that price was NOT going to work! lol I did find a finished bag at WM for $60, but they only had one color and no outer bag. That means I wouldn't be able to wash it at all... not an option!

Then I discovered that I could contact a local foam manufacturer and buy them directly. They price them at $15 for 20 cu ft. The only stipulation is that your order has to be $100 or more. I talked to a friend and we decided that between the two of us we would need 9 bags, 6 being the minimum order. So, with her van emptied out and the back seat folded in we were off.

Let me start by saying that we seriously underestimated the size of these bags!! ROFL!!

Here they are filling the first bag...



This is my friend next to one of the bags. She's... 5' 10" I think...




Now... to get these suckers into her van!!! We had a heck of a time! At one point one of the bags got a hole in it and beans started spewing out like a water hose on full blast!! The whole roof of the van was covered in beans!



We were only able to stuff 5 of the bags in there. Poor Mrs. C had to go back to get the last 4!! Fortunately Mr. C was able to keep her company on the journey as I was not.

Now for the fun part! I went back to the dreaded WM and picked up 3 flat sheets. One for each bag.




I laid the sheet out, folded it top to bottom (right sides OUT) and sewed one short end and the long side...



I did a super-uber stitch to make sure it is good and strong. I also sewed the stitch on the outside so that if it does get a hole it will be easy to find and fix.

Now the scary.... I mean fun part! Filling them!!


Here I am contemplating my next move...



(try to ignore the surrounding garage mess)

Here I am trying to get the bag around the bag of filler without spewing beans all over the place... (I highly recommend NOT talking on the phone at this point)



Then I aquired the help of my DD, BR, and turned the whole thing over so I could remove the bag...



(She's the one behind the camera, btw)

Then I ever so gingerly sewed the remaining side closed and tested it out!



As you can see, we did get a few beans on the floor but nothing to bad!

For a cover I took another full sized flat sheet, folded it top to bottom (right sides together) and sewed it with a straight stitch on two sides. Voila!! All together each bag cost less than $35 start to finish!!

TTFN,
Me