I'm confused. You have a quote from a beanbag mfr. to make bags w/fabric you're providing, at a cost of $225 each? (Like a mail-order deal, you send them fabric, they return the finished item?)

And a local upholsterer quoted you $100, right?

The difference in price could be several things-cost/quality/amount of the filling used, labor costs, overhead, zipper installation, workmanship, etc.

Beanbags use a LOT of filling, and it's a petroleum product like foam, so the cost has skyrocketed in recent yrs. As far as making them, they're not hard, but not simple like a pillowcase, properly made they gen. are made like orange sections, sewn together, so there's some amount of fitting and cutting precision necessary.

I hate to say but when a non-sewer says 'how hard can it be?' I cringe. It can be hard....well, time-consuming really is what I mean. Maybe ask the local person to make one and see if you like it, $200 final savings is a lot of loot to save.

Good luck with your project!

Jomuir, thank you for your response. I really am clueless about sewing, so take any comments I make with a grain of salt. I decided to take a flyer on this lady so we'll see what results!

no problem. Sorry if I was snarky, I wasn't feeling well that day and kept rereading your post to be sure I was getting it!

Anyway, $200 is a big price difference, if the local person can do it to your liking it would be great. I always like to keep jobs like that local, good for your area's economy too.

Jomuir, or any others, this seamstress said that she can't get my patterns to line up. She said she is using a pattern calling for 3 circles with segments (not sure of shape) in between. The fabric is a black and white trellis pattern from Waverly called Chippendale. Is this the best pattern to use to "hide" the patterns inability to line up? This is going to be a 52" diameter circular bean bag. I understand this can't be a perfect line up with this trellis design in the fabric, but would like it to look nice.

I checked for the fabric on the 'net - it almost looks like a chain link fence!

Width: 54"
Construction: Outdoor Fabric, Print Fabric
Style: Contemporary Fabric
Fiber Content: 100% SPUN POLYESTR
Pattern Repeat: Vert=3.40" Horiz=2.50"

I don't know that this particular print will work out really well for a circular object. It might be better to make this in pie-like sections (cut in triangular pieces like a pie with a small section of a solid color to separate the print portions as I believe it will be almost impossible to 'match' the design.

I've made a couple of bean bags before. The top was a circle and the bottom was a circle with a zipper in it. The side pieces are in the shape of orange wedges. I don't see any way to get the large lattice pattern of your fabric to line up. While it might match in one spot, it will never match along the curve of the wedge.

Yep, you may have chosen a fabric that just won't match up due to the shape of the pieces needed. You can find a spot where it will match, like the center, but the ends won't match up. Like a plaid coat sometimes doesn't match print esp. where there's darts or shaping. (That's why patch pockets on plaid coats are gen. placed diagonally, to avoid non-matching plaid lines on the coat front.)

You'll need to know how badly 'off' the print will be. But it should still be doable, if they have enough fabric to make the 2 beanbags the same, at least they'd be consistent. And it has a small repeat so the seamstress should be able to work w/it w/o wasting a lot of fabric to line it up as best as possible.

Keep in mind, if this was ready-made, the seams/fabric most likely would NOT match, they just don't make them that carefully anymore, also mfrs. save tons of fabric in cutting by letting the item not line up. Mfrs. vary in how badly they'll go off pattern but even high end home dec. is often off in layout. So I wouldn't fret too much about it, if you like the pattern & it goes in your room, I'd go ahead and have them made up. Is there something else you'd do w/the fabric if you don't have the beanbags made up?