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Free Patterns for Bean Bags

By editor ⋅ January 12, 2010 ⋅ Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Crab Bags and Bean Beings

Margaret Park’s delightful book of bean bag patterns was first published in 1978. Long before “beanie babies” there were Margaret’s Crab-Bags and Other Bean Beings, which included stories and sewing patterns for making six stuffed bean bag toys.

Originally sold through The National Wildlife Federation’s Ranger Rick Book Club, Crab-Bags and Other Bean Beings is now available from the publisher as a free ebook download, which includes the printable patterns and easy instructions to make a bean-bag flounder, crab, frog, seal, chameleon and dolphin.

The printed version got great reviews from Publishers Weekly - “…. Tips on construction are clear as a bell and accompanied by breezy, entertaining and informative paragraphs about each creature” and The Washington Post, which said that with this book “anyone, even a child, can sew a bean-bag being with any scrap of material.”

A sewing machine is not required, and the patterns are easy enough for children as young as ten.

Margaret Park invites you to download Crab-Bags and Other Bean Beings to make them for yourself, for friends, or to sell them at craft fairs or fundraisers.

Margaret Park has now written another delightful book called Now … for My Next Number! Songs for Multiplying Fun , a collection of easy, original songs that will help children practice and understand multiplication. Each song features a number and its multiples and tells a story in rhythm, rhyme, melody and pictures; there is also an audio CD to accompany the book, making math a lively and multi-sensory activity.

Tags: bean bags, chameleon, children, crab, dophin, ebook, free, frog, patterns, seal, sewing