Make the ultimate bean bag chair with basic sewing skills and in under an hour. If you have a kid or two a bean bag chair is the perfect play or lounge area accessory. My 12-year-old son has perfected the art of lounging and he enjoys reading and gaming, and can use this comfortable bean-bag chair for both. The sumo style bean bag chair are fun to use in multiple ways. The bags are actually filled with polystyrene pellets, making the chair light-weight and moldable. You can adjust the size to make either a child-size or adult-size bean bag chair. Mine is a tween size and not quite as big as the regular Fatboy and not as small as the Fatboy Junior. My kids are in love with cuddle fabric and if you don’t know what it is you are missing out! The first time Shannon fabrics sent me some to work with my kids begged me to make things for their us because it is so soft and silky.
Materials for Fatboy Inspired bean bag chair:
- (size 60 x 45 x 10) Affiliate links below. I make a tiny commission if you purchase the supplies.
- Cuddle fabric 60” 2.5 yards Dark Lime (use length of selvage edge for seam allowance)
- Fairfield Processing – Poly-Fil Bean bag filler 4-5 bags
- Extrawide double folded bias tape
Tools for Fatboy Inspired bean bag chair:
Scissors, sewing machine, straight pins, thread in a coordinating color, plastic cup and duck tape
Instructions for Fatboy Inspired bean bag chair:
- Sew bias tape along the longest shortest edges to help keep its shape since cuddle fabric is stretchy and has lots of give. Fold right sides together and sew the two edges with bias tape together to form a tube.
- Sew bottom selvage edge closed and sew top selvage edge closed leaving an opening for funnel.
- Cut bottom of a plastic cup to use as funnel and cut a corner of plastic bag.
- Use duck tape to hold cup in place.
- Pour Poly-fil beans into opening and repeat until bag is full. 5 bags were used for this size.
I found the best way to fill add the Poly-Fil bean bag was to create a funnel. You could use a plastic cup, a paper towel tube or something similar.
Fairfield Processing and Shannon fabrics both sent me the products to use for this project.
I truly love the bean bag chairs, but as a person who is metabolically-challenged, I am extremely offended by your project title, and the term, “Fatboy”. You really could have used kinder wording for your “inspiration” titling.
Pretty certain the title was not meant to be offensive. Fatboy is the (rather strange, I admit) name of a company that makes great bean chairs. http://www.fatboyusa.com/us/collection/the-original P.S. Love this craft idea!!
Dee,
Sorry you’re offended by the title. As Steph, so kindly pointed out it is the name of the brand that inspired the project.
I really need to learn how to sew! This looks really, really comfy.
My teens would love a giant bean bag like this. I’ll have to definitely give this a try since I don’t want to spend the big $$$ for the ones online.
Hi, are you able to provide an estimate of how much it would cost to make this?
Thank you.
I think I made it for around $90 including everything. It is very big.
Fairfield sells a 2 1/2 lbs. bag of Poly-fil for $38.99. Do we need 4-5 bags of this size to make the chair that you made?
The bean bags were on Special at Joann’s for half off.
I love the bean bag chair. I never made one but that will be my next project. Thank you
Hi, I love this project and would love to make one for my 9 years old as a birthday gift. I want to make everything perfect but I’m not sure how to sew the bias tape 🙈
Pin the edges together with the bias tape covering the seam. Use a straight stitch or a zigzag stitch. Go slow because it will be bulky.
Thank you a thousand times for your help and this great tutorial!