How to Make a Fish Bean Bag

Make a fish bean bag toy in a snap.

Bean bag toys were staples of childhood long before they were mass-marketed as collectibles. The simple toys, whether filled with natural dried beans or plastic pellets, can be virtually any shape or size, and they often take the form of animals. If you know someone who's crazy for sea creatures, you just need a bit of fabric and a few beans and you're on your way to making a fishy friend inspired by the flounder Margaret Park designed for her book "Crab-Bags and Other Bean Beings."

Things You'll Need

• Felt
• Scissors
• Pinking shears
• Needle and thread or sewing machine
• 2 pieces of plain paper
• Dried navy beans or plastic pellet toy filling
• Embroidery thread

Instructions

1. Lay one piece of paper out horizontally on your work surface and draw a fat football-shaped oval with your pencil. Start the oval on the left edge of your paper, finishing about three-quarters of the way across the paper.

2. Erase the elongated tip on both ends of the oval. Sketch in the silhouette of a pair of rounded lips on the left edge. Draw a wedge-shaped tail coming from the other end of the oval--whatever size looks proportionate to you. Cut out your fish template with scissors.

3. Stack two 10-by-12-inch sheets of felt on your work surface and put the fish template down on top. Lightly trace around the template to transfer the shape of the fish to the top sheet of felt.

4. Pin the two sheets of felt together at several spots inside the outline. Cut through both layers of felt with pinking shears, following the line. Unpin the felt.

5. Stitch all the way around the fish--from one side of the tail, around the oval and stopping on the other side of the tail, leaving the bottom of the wedge-shaped tail open. Leave a 1/8-inch seam allowance. If hand stitching, use a small backstitch so beans cannot escape.

6. Stitch additional seams at the top and bottom of the oval, starting and ending about an inch from the elongated ends of the oval and following the curve of the oval, about a 1 1/2 inches in from the edge. These sections will form the fish's top and bottom fins and will not contain any beans.

7. Roll your second sheet of paper into a funnel. Insert the narrow end into the open tail and carefully pour in the beans. Do not overfill. Pin, then carefully sew across the end of the tail.

8. Thread your needle with embroidery floss to add eyes, gills, lips or any other detail you desire.

Tips & Warnings

• If you choose to make a flounder, put both eyes on the same side of the head. According to Parker, as flounders mature, they no longer swim upright, but move through the water flat, like a stingray, and one eye eventually "migrates" to the other side of its head.

• Cut your pattern size in half and make a whole school of fish suitable for a bean-bag toss game.

• Embroider on eyes to avoid a choking hazard if the fish is for a very young child.

References

• Great River Books: Crab-Bags & Other Bean Beings (PDF)

Resources

• Fiber Images: Hand Sewing Stitches Chart