When I spotted the bean bag pictured below in the March issue of Cloth (taken from The Liberty Book of Home Sewing) I knew straight away that I needed to make one. Phil is fairly tall and he likes to stretch out & put his feet up when sat on the sofa. However, we have a small living room and a small sofa, and I find that every time I get up to make a cup of tea he has his feet up on my side of the couch. I thought I’d see If I could wean him off my sofa cushion with a bean bag.
On a trip to Ikea I spotted a suitable fabric for the project (Halleknopp). Although the fabric is a thick upholstery cotton – not a soft, stretchy fabric as is typical with bean bags – the finished pouffe is suitably comfy and you can squash your feet into it. This is thanks to the polystyrene balls which were used to fill it, and due to leaving some space inside the cover rather than filling it absolutely to the brim.
To make the pouffe you need to create the basic shape twice; once in the exterior fabric and once in a lining fabric which holds the filling. Following the pattern, I filled the lining with polystyrene balls and then tried to insert it into the cover. Perhaps unsurprisingly that provided rather difficult and I had to part empty it, insert it inside the cover and then put the rest of the filling back in…
I made only one minor change to the pattern. The pattern instructions included inserting a zip on the bottom of the cover, allowing the liner to be inserted/removed. However, we have a wooden floor in our living room and I was worried there was a chance of a zip scratching the floor. Instead I simply left a gap in the bottom of the cover and stitched this up by hand once the liner had been inserted and filled.
I especially liked the feature of two neat (although admittedly somewhat redundant) handles on either side. They add a bit of detail to what is otherwise a very simple design.
Below is me testing it out on completion. I can report that it is both very comfy and has been successful in helping me to protect my side of the sofa.
P.S. Yes, I am watching Cartoon Network.
