I made this last night. Filler cost $24 on eBay. $10 of fabric at Walmart. $1 zipper. Kind of disappointing. I copied something I saw at Target that was $39.99.
Anyone know a cheap source of that pea sized foam filler? I want to try recycled but I'm afraid of getting a contaminated load that was used to ship carcinogenic widgets.
It's really hard to beat the price on something that's so simple to make and made out of stuff that can be bought in bulk in China.
However, how about ... dried corn (commonly used in heating pillows) or buckwheat? Both of these are more expensive to buy than the plastic product, but I hear they come out of the fucking ground for free!
If it's just a refill, maybe "shipping popcorn"?
Unfortunately I can't really think of an easy way to shred styrofoam.
jacob wrote:
It's really hard to beat the price on something that's so simple to make and made out of stuff that can be bought in bulk in China.
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I think I've said this in a sewing thread but I just cannot take my own advice. Labor is pretty cheap in China. Fabric is bought in 10,000yd rolls. No sense in trading my hour for their hour.
The beans are a special high compression closed cell foam. Packing peanuts are designed to crack once.
These things have to sustain many compressions.
I like the real bean, rice, lentil or soba idea. Emergency food storage. But it'll take a bushel and it may not be light and comfy.
Don't give up on the packing peanuts. Back in the '70s, when I had a beanbag chair as a youth, we added the packing peanuts and I had the bestest overstuffed beanbag ever!
My wife wants to make a homemade beanbag, she plans to use an old memory foam mattress topper, cut up by hand. Memory foam loses it's support eventually, so we have one to get rid of.
This seems like a crazy work/reward ratio, but I thought I'd mention it as a stuffing source...
