Giant Bean Bag Cover

The original

The original

The nephew has one of those ginormous bean bags - you know, the kind that swallow you up and you never want to get out of. One Sunday night, I get a text asking if I could make a new cover for it. Of course I can!

My brother sent me a picture of it and had the presence of mind to actually measure and provide the dimensions without being asked.

This is a very simple project, and can be done in a couple hours for whatever size you need.

Materials

  • Bean bag to cover

  • Fabric (calculate your yardage)

  • Zipper (unfinished chain with at least one slider) - should be long enough to open about 3/4 of the way so you can easily get the bean bag inside)

Measurements

The finished cover will be 48” in diameter by 28” high.

I sketched out what the finished product would look like and this is what I drew. It’s basically a cylinder (two circles and a rectangle), nothing fancy, with a zipper around the bottom seam. In my case, I had to cut multiple rectangles because my local Joann’s was short on this particular fabric, so I had to make do.

For the circles, calculate the circumference. If you have forgotten your high school geometry, the formula for diameter is 2 * pi (that’s 3.14) * radius. In my case since I know the diameter, it’s just 3.14 * diameter.

I added 0.5” seam allowance, so that’s 3.14 * 48.25, so my total length needs to be 152.29” and for ease I just called that 152.25” (which I can get away with because I used fleece and it stretches a little, so that won’t give me heartburn).

The finished width (or height, as it’s assembled) of my rectangles needed to be 28”, so adding 0.5” seam allowance on each edge meant a cut width of 29”.

With the pieces I had, I needed to get a little creative, so I had two cuts at 63” and then one at 29.25”

Since I pieced three rectangles together, that meant I’d have 3 seams, so 1” seam allowance for each piece adds 3” to my cut length. So, 152.25 + 3 - 63 - 63 = 29.25.

To cut the circles, I first folded the fabric in half (selvedge to selvedge) and then over on itself so I had 4 layers of fabric to cut. I then took a string and marked my radius (24.25”) and taped it to a sharpie. Holding the string mark at the bottom folded corner of the fabric, I dragged the Sharpie along the fabric to get the line for a quarter circle. I actually was able to use the nap of the fabric as my cut line and didn’t even have to uncap the Sharpie. Cut, unfold, and there’s your circle.

Assembly

  1. I took my 3 rectangles and pinned them right sides together along the 29” edges, making sure the nap of the fabric was matched up. I sewed using 1/2” seam allowance and serged the edges to finish them. Once it’s all together, it’s a giant tube.

  2. I made quarter marks with pins on the circles (think of it like a clock - mark at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock). On the tube, I did the same.

  3. Next up was the zipper. I used some zipper chain I had on hand. I didn’t measure, but planned to go about 3/4 of the way around the circle. After inserting the slider, I bar tacked each end to create a stop.

  4. With the zipper face down on the right side of the circle, I sewed in place using a 1/2” seam allowance. At each end, I left about an inch free because that will get hidden in the seam allowance later.

  5. Since it didn’t really matter where the zipper started/stopped on the tube, I just picked a place and started pinning the free side of the zipper (face down on the right side of the tube fabric). I used the quarter marks to match things up with the circle. Again, I left about 1” free at each end.

  6. After the zipper was attached to both the circle and the tube, I pinned the remaining seam allowance together (about 1/4 of the circle). To hide the end of the zipper, I pulled it up into the seam allowance and pinned in place. I began stitching along the line from the zipper seam, over the zipper teeth and continued the 1/2” seam allowance around until I came to the other edge of the zipper, where I did the same thing - pulled the zipper into the seam allowance and sewed until I was on top of the original stitching line.

  7. I opened up the zipper a bit so I could turn it right side out later.

  8. Once again, I matched up the quarter marks and placed the other circle right sides together with the tube. I sewed this at 1/2” seam allowance and serged the edges.

  9. Last, I turned it right side out - it’s now ready to have a giant bean bag stuffed inside!

Since I don’t have the actual bean bag to stuff in it to show an after photo, you’ll just have to use your imagination!