Nearly Comfortable

The bean bag project took most of the day. I rang my friend V about five minutes after she'd finished reading yesterday's post. She laughed and said she'd been expecting a call. A cup of coffee together and then we tackled the delicate task of getting the styrofoam pellets into the casing. We did pretty well. The few run-away pellets were soon rounded up and popped back into place. V held the opening while I pinned and then stitched it shut. Getting the right quantity of beans was more difficult. The three and a half kilos I'd calculated weren't quite enough. I decided to solve the problem by making the outer cover a bit smaller than the lining. There was no way I was going to try taking those little critters out again to modify the inner casing.

I was on my own when I finally had the outer cover complete. I'll spare you the drama of my malfunctioning zip--I decided I could use velcro instead. My first attempt resulted in a twisted lump of bean bag lying unmoving inside my cover. When I went to pull the lining bag out to try again I found that there was a small hole in the lining bag--just enough to let a trickle of little white pellets escape. Auuugh! I found it and stitched it shut. The pellets went in the bin. Then I managed to drag the twisted lining bag out of its new cover. I made several unsuccesful attempts to get the cover in place. You can just imagine me wrestling with a highly mobile expanse of uncooperative fabric and its contents. In the end I decided I needed a larger opening in the outer cover. I unpicked the bottom seam and tried again. This time I managed to line up the inner and outer casing. Here's the result. You can't tell that there's an open seam tucked under the bean bag, can you? I'll address that issue once I'm convinced that everything else is working as it should. By the time I got to this stage I was dreaming of a relaxed half hour lounging in my new creation. I'd worked up quite a sweat. It was not to be. My adjustment to the size of the cover had overcompensated. The bean bag looks good, but it's just a little too full for comfortable relaxation. I'm aware that the bean bag pellets do tend to lose a little volume with use. I'm counting on that. Otherwise I either need to make a new cover or adjust the quantity of filling. Neither prospect is enticing. Unfortunately neither is the bean bag in its current state. To get the pellets to do their natural adjustments I'm going to have to use it though. Either that or spend a couple of hours kicking it around the room! Tempting as that solution may be I think I'll stick to the conservative approach.