Catching Up {again}

I know I said I was going to try to start posting again, but surprise surprise, it hasn't really happened! But I have a good excuse.

We are expecting again. Our second little boy is due in September. I'm sure you know how it goes...at first too tired to do anything, then too busy trying to do everything and then too tired to do much again.

I have been doing some things here and there, though. This is a project that I made for the Little Man for Christmas. Its his very own monogrammed bean bag. It turned out nicely, but it was more of bear to make than I expected, though.


I Googled for free bean bag patterns for awhile before I settled on one. I wish I could remember where I got it from, but I can't. Its been awhile. I just picked one that seemed as if it would be big enough. I made an inner bladder for it out of muslin so it could be washed and of course, this means that the outer cover needed a zipper.

I've never really understood zippers and I've only attempted it once or twice. I ended up buying a couple zippers before I finally got one that would be appropriate. I think it was a parka zipper or something ridiculous that I had to buy in order to get one that was long enough. I found a tutorial for a hidden zipper and it turned out well enough.

Then I picked out bean bag fill. I wanted to buy the tiny little beads so that it wouldn't smoosh down completely over time. Well, I can't say I recommend what I settled on. I bought the Poly-fil Micro beads. They're expensive, but I didn't figure it would take too many bags. We bought them at Joanns one bag at a time so that I could use coupons on them. And each time, I would carefully dump the bag in, make a HUGE mess, and realize that it wasn't going to be enough. Seriously. I can't remember for sure how many I bought, but it was waaaay too many. Six at least. They cleaned up easily enough, but they were everywhere.

I sewed up the muslin and the outer bag with a regular stitch and went over that with a zig zag stitch as well, hoping that would ensure that the bag would be leak-proof. I monogrammed Jack's name on it (that part turned out well - yay!) and stuffed the bag.

Well, the bag has been loved and enjoyed by both the little man and the dog since then. It of course, has needed to be washed by now. I took it apart in the basement, since it felt like there were stray beads inside. There were. Everywhere. There is about an inch long opening in the bladder. How? I have no idea. I tried to vacuum them out of the cover and then I gave up and put it in the washer. After the washer filled, I fished beads out by hand as best I could.

Its been sitting in my basement now for months while I get around to sewing it shut.

Long story short....I think I'd recommend plunking down the cash to buy a monogrammed bean bag elsewhere. Or don't use micro beads. Maybe shredded foam? This project was way too expensive and messy and aggravating. I did actually buy the pattern for a Rollie Pollie from Dana-made-it and perhaps sometime I'll try it again with another fill. Someday. When I recover from my annoyance at this one.