How to Make Corn Bags

The backyard lawn game known as “cornhole”—or depending on where you live in the country it could also be known as bean bag toss, tailgate toss, baggo or bags—is a fun game where players take turns throwing bags of corn at a slanted wood platform with a hole in the far end. If you get your bag in the hole you score 3 points, and if your bean bag stays on the platform you score 1 point. The first team to reach 21 points wins. It is such a great summer backyard game! I recently showed you how to build a cornhole board and said I’d be back with a separate tutorial for the corn bags. Today I am going to show you step by step how to make corn bags for your cornhole boards.

Step 1: Measure your material and cut.

You need two different fabrics in order to make four corn bags for each type of fabric. Outdoor fabric, duck cloth or canvas work best for this project. Cut 16 7″x7″ squares of fabric to make your corn bags. If you have a fabric cutting board and rotary cutter, you are golden. Simply measure 7 inches by 7 inches and cut a strip of fabric and then cut that strip every 7 inches. If you don’t have these tools on hand, just improvise. I used a plastic Square to measure my 7″x7″ fabric squares. I drew on the fabric with a fabric pencil and then cut the squares by hand.

Step 2: Place fabric squares on top of each other wrong side out.

Once you have your 16 squares cut, 8 in one fabric and 8 in another, place two matching fabric squares together wrong side out.

Step 3: Sew each cornhole bag twice (double stitch).

Since you’ll be throwing these bean bags with 1 pound of corn inside, you want to make sure they stay sewn shut! Game Over if corn goes flying everywhere :). Start 2/3 of the way down one side of your square and stitch all the way around the square until you reach the side where you began. Stitch 1/3 of the way down that side being sure to leave a 1/3 gap in the center. You need a place to fill the bag with corn so don’t sew it completely shut. Repeat this process so that each square is double stitched and secure. Turn the bags right-side out and push the corners out with your finger or the eraser end of a pencil.

Step 4: Fill bags with corn and sew shut.

Each cornhole bag needs to be filled with 1 pound of corn. This ends up being approximately 2 cups of corn. If you have a feed store near you, then buy 8 lbs of feed corn. I went to Target instead and bought popcorn :). To make filling the bags easier, use a funnel. (I created one with some card stock from the recycling bin.) Once your bag is filled, place a few straight pins to hold the bag in place and sew the opening shut. You could use fabric glue and then hand stitch the opening closed if you want a secure and finished look. I just ran it through the sewing machine to save time.

When you are finished, admire your cute corn bags! Throwing cute bags onto cute boards makes this game so much more fun to play.

The bags have taken a lot of abuse and so far so good. I was a little worried about the fabric I used because it’s not as thick as canvas but it’s held up fine so far. They slide beautifully on my boards and I’ve scored quite a few points with them so I’d say they are a success :). I’d love to hear if you decide to make your own so let me know if you do so.

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