Free Tablet (and book!) Bean Bag Pattern

Learn how to make a book or tablet bean bag with a free sewing pattern. This beginning sewing project is a useful handmade gift.

I have wanted to make a tablet holder for a little over a year, but when I started researching ideas I didn’t like the options that were available. I started developing my own idea, and when I first showed my husband we were both unimpressed.

He wondered if most people would buy an option that was made out of wood or plastic. I was about to scrap the whole idea and not make a pattern at all when my children woke up and came to see what I was working on. They were thrilled with a tablet holder or a book holder. They all fought over the first one which was a completely different design, and it wasn’t very good.

This gave me the motivation to keep designing and researching. I finally came up with this tablet bean bag or a book bean bag sewing pattern. It might not be what grown ups are looking for, but kids LOVE mini bean bag to hold up their stuff!

What is a tablet bean bag? What is a book bean bag?

A tablet bean bag or a book bean bag is basically a mini bean bag that has the shape and weight for holding a tablet, phone, book, kindle, Nintendo Switch, etc. at a nice angle for reading and looking at. It’s not the same as a regular bean bag chair because the filling inside is different and has more weight. It’s also a different shape than any bean bag chair I’ve seen.

While I was researching, these are some of the other names I came across for similar ideas: tablet pouf, tablet pillow, book pouf, book pillow, phone pillow, and phone bean bag.

What fabric should I use for a tablet bean bag?

The great thing about a tablet bean bag is that you can use lots of different fabrics. I used quilting cotton for the three options that I made because I wanted to make it accessible with any fabric. Quilting cotton is easy to sew and the fabric most likely to be in your stash.

This sewing project could have also been made with canvas, polar fleece, or Minky. It doesn’t matter if the fabric stretches, and a cozy fabric like polar fleece or Minky would make the tablet bean bag extra soft and cuddly.

What should I use to fill a tablet bean bag?

I used both rice and poly-pellets to fill these tablet bean bags and both options worked great. The rice is much cheaper and I had it on hand. I bought the poly-pellets which worked a little better since they are smaller but still have weight, but poly-pellets are not cheap.

I bought 6 lbs for $25 and split it between the three tablet bean bags. I had to top each one off with rice because 2 lbs wasn’t enough. I bet it would’ve worked great to use 3 lbs for one tablet bean bag.

Why does this tablet bean bag have a loop and a zipper?

I created a sewing pattern with a loop and a zipper, and it goes into more detail for creating a tablet bean bag. Get the Table Bean Bag sewing pattern!

Love to sew? Try these sewing projects:

• Gifts to sew
• Beginner sewing projects
• Gifts to sew for kids
• Free PDF sewing patterns

How to Make a Tablet Bean Bag Pattern

Supplies

• 1/3 yard of fabric like quilting cotton, canvas, polar fleece, or Minky
• 3 lbs of rice or poly-pellets
• sewing tools
• sewing machine

Do you just want the pattern and tutorial as a PDF? Get the pattern and tutorial with a loop and zipper opening for just $5. You won’t need to access the internet every time you want to make it. Or get the Pattern Bundle with ALL the PDF tutorials!

Instructions

Cut two rectangles of fabric that are 12 inches tall and 14 inches wide.

Pin the two rectangles right sides together.

Sew around the rectangle with a 3/8 inch seam allowance. Leave a 3 inch for turning on one of the short ends. Pivot at the corners and backstitch when you start and when you stop.

The hole will the be back of the bean bag.

One corner will stay untouched and will become the top of the bean bag. The other three corners will be shifted and boxed.

To do the shift and pull at a corner so the seam allowances are on top of each other.

Mark 2 inches in from the corner.

Sew across at 2 inches of each of the three corners. Backstitch when you start and when you stop.

Trim the three corners off to reduce the bulk.

Turn the bean bag right side out through the hole. Carefully poke out the corners.

Fill up the bean bag until it is 2/3 full or about 3 lbs. (I would take the weight as a guideline since different rice weigh different.)

Pinch and pin the hole closed. Edgestitch the hole closed. You might have to hole up the bean bag in a weird way to fit it in your sewing machine.

Alternatively, you can handstitch the hole closed. You finished!

If you make something using this sewing project, I’d love to see! Please share it on social media with the hashtag #heatherhandmade and tag me!