How To Sew Floor Cushions For Toddlers (And Jack Russells)

Would you believe it, I actually used a Young House Love tutorial to sew these bean bags? Well, technically they're not bean bags cos they're filled with hollowfibre, so are probably closer to giant floor cushions or pouffes.

Anyway, usually I skip the YHL tutorials as they have waaaaaay too many words to be a realistic read for someone with a toddler to wrangle, but I saw the bean bag Sherry sewed for Clara and was genuinely impressed by how it turned out. So I ordered a few metres of Flopsy in Pink and Amalfi Fuschia fabric, plus some flanged cord.

Seriously, flanged cord? In the US, this stuff is very sensibly called piping. In the UK, piping is what you put in your floor to transport your gas and water - so if you want the silky braided stuff with a 1cm edge to aid sewing two pieces of fabric neatly together, then you need flanged cord.

I needed the covers to be washable, natch, so I made separate liners from cheap polyester using the same template, filled them with enough hollowfibre to be sturdy yet squidgy (2kg per cushion), stuffed them into the cushion covers, and closed the gap with press studs.

Eva's not the only one who finds them to be a nice comfy resting place.

My name is Princess Penny, and I like to make myself comfortable on a squashy floral pink and aqua bean bag, OK?

Next up - photos of the completed mural! In my head I'd pictured a huge gorgeous fantasy landscape of jungle animals and birds and trees and flowers rioting amid famous world landmarks - and that's pretty much how it turned out, so I'm very pleased with myself right now :-)