Beanbag

You might not find this an interesting photo, but I like it because I made the beanbag.

It's the first thing I've made in earnest on my 1950 hand-cranked Singer 99K. I made it for my husband, who has wanted a beanbag for ages and ages.

I was advised to make a lining, although the pattern didn't say to. I wondered what to make it out of; the Internet suggested old sheets, so that's what I used. Turned out that the lining was good practice for doing the actual beanbag itself, especially when it came to doing the zip.

I don't remember sewing a zip onto anything before (although I must have done one at school, where I made a floor cushion), and it turns out it's best done with a zipper foot. I now have a normal zipper foot and a narrow zipper foot, and I have now sewn two more zips. They're very, very difficult. I feel for the people on the BBC's sewing bee programme, having to do complicated zips and flies. I had to look in a library book on sewing to find out how to do them.

Filling the blighter was tricky, too. I was advised to do it in the bathroom where it would be easier to tidy up the spillage. It would have been so much easier with another person to help, as well, but it was a surprise for the only other person who lives here. I managed in the end, but the floor's a mess.

Then I had to stuff the filled lining into the beanbag. I wondered about aligning the zips - should I or shouldn't I? - but this worry was soon superseded by the requirement to just get the thing in there. I straightened it up afterwards, having had a small break to sew up gaps that appeared at the edges of the lining's zip. I have no idea where the lining's zip is; nor do I care.

I was knackered by the time I'd stuffed it all in, but I still ran up the stairs to fetch my husband. I told him I needed him downstairs, but not why. He followed me down, and I ta-dahed, and told him I'd made him a beanbag. He seemed really pleased with it, and, dare I say, a bit impressed.