by When Austin decided to make a bean bag chair for his home, little did he know he’d be making an 8 foot dog bed for his rescue dog, Archer. He also didn’t know the DIY project would require quite as much sewing as it did, which proved challenging given it was his first time sewing.
“This wasn’t my first DIY but it was my first time ever to sew,” Austin told Reshareworthy.com. “I thought the project would be knocked out in a few hours but I was naive. It took roughly 25 hours total.”
But as you’ll see, Austin and Archer are more than pleased with the final results. Since completing the beanbag, Austin says that his Boxer mix “cant’ stay off of it; even before I was finished, he was always on it.”
Austin adds that it is a great piece of furniture to “be social with your animals or your friends.”
Check out how the project went in the photos below.
Austin began by cutting two circles with a 40.5 inch radius from 104″ cheap white muslin for the liner.
He cut two 127″ rectangles with a height of 41″ for the sides of the liner.
For the size of beanbag he was planning, Austin needed from 90 to 130 pounds of foam. “The filler is the most important part for the bean bag, IMO. I used shredded foam,” he advises.
Austin pinned the 127″ rectangle around the circle (254″ diameter) to prepare the liner for sewing.
He used a heavy duty thread and set the length on his sewing machine fairly short (~1). But he didn’t know what he was in for.
“I thought the project would be knocked out in a few hours but I was naive. It took roughly 25 hours total. I’m sewing the liner together. It helps if you have someone assisting you since it’s a lot of fabric to work with.”
“Here I am pretty thrilled to have successfully sewn both 127″ rectangles to the circle and next will sew the sides closed.”
Next it came time to fill it with foam. As the foam was packed very tightly Austin climbed inside the bean bag and tore it apart. The foam would expand for the next 24 hours, which meant he needed to check back if he had enough.
Once the foam was inside he sewed the other side closed. “My 8 foot dog bed was on it’s way, er beanbag I mean.”
“The fabric for the case was a 54″ width so i had to buy twice the amount as the muslin as far as length and then cut half circles and sew them together.”
Once he had sewn the halves together, he moved on to pinning the side of the fabric to the circle. “I now have the grey sewn on to the green circle so i threw it on to see how it looked.”
Austin learned he needed to reverse over the ends of his sewing to reinforce the strength after he didn’t do it at first and it caused a tear in his liner.
He sewed two 72″ large zipper into the case in order to remove the liner that has the foam so it can be washed separately and kept clean.
“Now i am pinning on both 72″ zippers to the bottom circle of the beanbag with my assistant Archer.”
“Sewed both ends of the zippers to one point to make it easy to remove the liner.”
“The final step was to just sew the last circle on to the bottom, be sure you work inside out and just flip the case afterwards.” He adds jokingly, “Sorry, my pits were so sweaty in the pictures, moving 100+ pounds of foam was tough work.”
Archer wanted to give the material a test too.
When finished, Austin’s beanbag weighs over 100 pounds. He discovered it takes 3 people to move it!
“Luckily, it is a bit malleable so it can be fit through smaller doors,” says Austin. “Unluckily, it is a bit malleable so it is hard to lift.”
It probably takes a little longer to move when it’s Archer’s play time!
In total, the materials cost around $500, for fabric, foam and sewing materials.
“I opted for higher quality furniture fabrics to avoid tearing and make cleaning easier. Also it’s very soft,” Austin says.
Here is Austin and Archer showing off the flip side.
Overall, Austin is “thrilled with how well it turned out.” And it looks like Archer agrees!
Photos published on Reshareworthy.com with permission from Austin.
Share Austin and Archer’s bean bag project with your friends and family!
