Small Bean Bags for Tossing - Tutorial

*** CrAzY bEaN bAgS ***

A couple of month ago, I was surfing the net looking for some craft ideas and came across this project of square mini bean bags from Art Nest . It gave me the idea to sew several "bean" bags of different colors, shapes, and textures. What a perfect project for our little guy! We will use those for awhile to learn colors and shapes, and have fun with the texture to explore our senses, especially touch.

Fabric colors (Plain): white, rose, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, and black

Textures: rice, lentils, wood mulch, sand, corn kernels, beans. 

=> I tried coffee beans in a bag but the smell was too strong, even through the fabric.

Shapes: square, rectangle, oval, circle, heart, croissant moon, star, rhombus and pentagon.

Storage: I kept a small shoe box to put all 9 shapes away. I took a pictures of the shapes, printed 2 pictures (1 big and 1 small) with a label, and taped them on the box (1 on the top and 1 on the side). 

Time: From the time to collect the fabrics, textures, and templates, this project took me over a month. Considering that I only worked on it less than 1 hour and ounce of twice a week.

Right now, someone is happy to play or should I say threw them in house. He likes to use the croissant moon to pretend that he wears glasses.

- A Bag in the Making Tutorial- 

After cutting the template of a pentagon on paper (31/4 inches), I placed the template on the top of the fabric (on the inside out) and traced around it. I pinned  a second piece of fabric underneath the one with the traced pentagon. Both right side should be facing. I pinned both pieces of orange fabric to make sure that they will not move when I will be sewing. So, I saw on the line. I started in the middle of the line, went all around the line of the template and stopped around 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches from where I started to assure that I will have enough room to twist the inside fabric out to be on the correct side. I made knots with the thread where I started and kept a long piece of thread (5-6 inches) to closed the fabric sewing by hand.

I ironed the bag. It got wrinkly after pulling the correct side of the fabric out.
 

I stuffed the inside of the pentagon with corn kernels this time (see above) about 3/4 of the bag. 

Afterward, it was time to saw again. I threaded my needle with the extra thread (from the sewing machine). I passed the needle twice on 1 side of the fabric, pulled the thread all the way and started the same process on the other side. I made sure to have very little space between each sewing to secure the corn kernels or beans   to go with the above picture. I kept sewing until I reached the opening was totally and surely closed. 

And Voila! A Nice Pentagon!