Anyone who has ever been to any sporting event, concert, festival, fair or backyard BBQ has probably come across the game of cornhole (or “bean bags” for you weirdo northerners). I first discovered the glorious game of cornhole in college. Apparently everyone else had been playing it for decades, but it was totally new to me and I loved it. I was also really good at it, but only when holding an open beer in my non-dominant right hand. I don’t even have to be drinking the beer. Just holding it will do. Take that beer away and I am straight garbage. It makes no sense.
I was always trying to get my family to play the fun games I learned about in college when we had BBQs, but nobody was ever interested. It wasn’t until kid #4 graduated college and moved home last summer, that (with her convincing) my whole family suddenly loved cornhole and was desperate for boards and bags to play at our next BBQ. I won’t pretend that I wasn’t annoyed. I’d spent years trying to get everyone to play cornhole, but at the very least, we’d finally get to play!
A few weeks before 4th of July weekend, my mom went on a hunt for a set of boards and bags. Unfortunately, those things are expensive! Instead, she quickly determined the boards could be built and painted and I could make the bags. Since I wasn’t in charge of the boards, I am not sure which specific tutorial they used to build them, but I can say they turned out quite nicely.
There was a pretty big family debate regarding how the boards should be painted. Some wanted Braves, some wanted Falcons, some wanted Disney and some wanted Ohio State. It was very heated. Since I was very pregnant and not very patient, I gave up on waiting for everyone to decide what color the boards would be and bought fabric in 4 colors: black, gray, blue and red. I figured I’d make a set of bags in each color and nobody could be mad. Plus, we’d have extra.
Honestly, the hardest part of making cornhole bags is getting the corn feed. As I was very pregnant, I sent my parents down to the local feed store (which I didn’t even know we had until this project) to get a big ole bag of corn feed. It was cheapest to get a 50lb bag, so that’s what they got. If you’re planning on making your own bags, you’ll need 1lb of corn feed for each bag. That means a set of bags (8) requires 8lbs of corn feed. We pawned off the extra corn feed on my cousin. She has chickens and apparently chickens can have corn mixed with their regular feed. If you don’t know someone with chickens, I have no idea what to do with the extra feed.
The overall bag-making process is pretty simple. You only need a few supplies and a little bit of time. If you’re interested in making your own cornhole bags, here is my very quick tutorial:
Supplies:
- ¼ yard duck canvas in color A
- ¼ yard duck canvas in color B
- Food scale
- 1lb corn feed per bag to be made (8lbs for full set)
- Large funnel/measuring cup
- Outdoor thread
- Sewing machine, needle, ruler, etc.
Instructions:
- Regulation cornhole bags are 6” by 6”. Therefore, cut 8 7” squares out of color A and color B.
- Place two pieces of the same color fabric right sides together and sew along the edges using a ½ inch seam allowance, back stitching at the beginning and end. Be sure to leave a 2-3 inch gap on one side. Repeat this for all 8 bags.
- Trim the corners of each bag, turn them right-side out and iron flat.
- Pour 1lb of corn feed into each bag using the food scale to measure the food and the funnel/measuring cup to reduce the mess. Be sure to use the tare feature of the scale so you don’t include the weight of the bowl in your measurement.
- Carefully sew the hole through which you poured in the corn feed closed. This can be a little tricky as the bags seem exceptionally full and are difficult to fit under the presser foot.
Cornhole bags retail for about $20 for a set of 8. With a little bit of effort, I was able to make 16 bags for less than $15 and provide my cousin with quite a bit of chicken food for later. If you’ve got the time, this is definitely an easy way to save a little money as we head into summer BBQ season.
Now, if you’ll excuse me. I need to round up 3 other people and find a beer. Any takers?
