Bean Bag Buddies

I like making homemade Christmas gifts whenever I can. I think they are more personal and meaningful. To put time and energy into some one's gift is to tell them that they are important to you. With that in mind, I present to you Bean Bag Buddies by Nicki Wheeler. This book includes patterns and instructions to make lots of various professional looking beanie babies. I have made the duck, monkey, bear, bat, and koala so far. The book also includes patterns for a snowman, reindeer, space alien, cat, dragon, rhino, horse, dog, and pretty much any other animal you can think of. Right now I am working on the cow for Will's stocking.


I am impressed by the clarity of the instructions and the simplicity of the sewing skill needed to accomplish these patterns. It did take a little time for me to trace the patterns at the beginning, but I could have easily photocopied them and spared myself some work :) I also enjoyed how I could use pretty much ANY material and get fabulous results. The cow I am working on now is made out of some polyester that I had. Plus, since you only need a little bit of material, you can make these animals quite inexpensively!
The one difficulty I did have was in finding safety eyes. I ended up searching google for them and buying them online. If you were making these for older kids, you could just use buttons, but since my target audience is under 2 it was worth the extra work for me :)
I also didn't exactly make them BEAN bags - I just used stuffing because I wanted to be able to throw them in the wash when they get sucked on.
Overall - GREAT book with easy adorable animals!
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