eye spy bean bags

We're all getting ready for school. I can't believe in just a handful of days Bee is off to Kindergarten and in three weeks or so, Lou and I are off to preschool. I thought our eye spy bags needed a little updated to get ready for school. I plan to take them as a little quiet activity.

Our old set was a little grubby from many hands and the windows were a little small. I can't remember when I made them, but we've had them for some time. They also smelled so strongly of rice I couldn't stand it. I also had been pondering a way to have some kind of list with them, so you know what you are looking for.

If you want to make a set with me, here's what you'll need:
2 pieces of fleece 6 1/2 inches x 6 1/2 inches
1 piece of cooridnating fleece 5 inches square
vinyl 6 inch square (you can use a cut from a clear shower curtain or they sell vinyl by the
yard)
10 or so little trinkets
filling material (stuffing pellets or rice)
thread
optional: 4 inches of ribbon, circle ring, hole punch, laminated photo and list of trinkets

I made these new ones about 6 1/2 inches square. I love using fleece for bean bags, it's so forgiving. No worries about the crooked corner. You will need two pieces of material for the bag.

I used 1 piece of 5 inch square fleece for the border of the window. You could make the bag without this, but I like it.

First, I sewed on the border in the center of the square. The piece of vinyl (about 6 inch square) is in the back. (you can see the vinyl sticking out of the bottom in the photo)

I sewed around the border twice to make a little window. It's best to keep the vinyl side at the bottom of the sandwich. Vinyl sews well touching the feeder dogs, but not touching the foot. It's sticks to the foot and can make you cry.


See the reverse, how the vinyl got sewed to the back.

I like the look of two sewn lines. Go ahead and do that. Then, carefully poke a hole in the fleece.

Don't cut the vinyl.

Trim up your window.

No picture of this step apparently, but sew the back of the bean bag to the front. Fleece is great because you don't have to hem it. I like to sew the wrong sides together leaving the edges raw.

Our old bags were filled with rice. For these new bags, I used these stuffing pellets. I used a little paper funnel and only filled about half way. Probably less than half. Don't be tempted to add to much filler. When you lay the bag flat, you need to be able to work around the contents to find the goodies.

Then I added 10 little goodies and finished sewing the edges up. If you are going to add a ribbon loop so you can attach a card, add it at this point.

I photographed the goodies before including them. I put 10 in each just to keep it easy. I raided the polly pocket box, Bee's treasure box, Lou's nightstand drawer, etc. I'm going to keep my eyes out for little treasures now at garage sales.

I made up some little cards that read, "eye spy with my little eye" and then it lists the items by name as well as has a photo. I had these hard laminated at Staples. It was worth the $1.60 to go for the hard lamination. All four fit on one sheet of lamination. These are hole punches and attached by a circle snap ring to the loop of ribbon.

I can see more of these in our future. I will start smuggling little toys out of the kid's bedrooms slowly. I want to list them in my etsy shop soon.

UPDATED: Here's a shop on etsy that I'm ordering the trinkets from now. And here are some more pictures of eye spy bags that have appliques on the back.