Are you practicing at home and wishing you had access to that nice pile of sandbags at the studio? It’s not hard to make your own if you have access to a sewing machine.
What you need for each sandbag:
- 10 lbs of aquarium gravel (or sand, but the gravel is easier to work with)
- Two pieces of denim 19″x9″ OR one pants leg off an old pair of jeans cut to size. You can use the inseam as one of the seams.
- A 9″ length of webbing OR you can just cut off a strip of the hem from the jeans.
- Pin the webbing into a loop across one short end of the denim so that the loop is against the right side and the cut ends of the loop line up with the cut end of the denim.
- Sew across the ends of the webbing using a 3/8″ seam allowance.
- With right sides of both denim pieces together, sew around three sides, using a 1/2″ seam allowance, leaving the short side without the loop open.
- Sew another seam 1/8″ from the first seam, towards the seam allowance. This is reinforcement to prevent leaking sand. Trim the corners and turn the bag right side out.
- Fill with the aquarium sand. Suggestion: Put the bag in a large saucepan in the kitchen, open end of the bag up. If you have a canning funnel, it will help keep the bag open as you fill it with sand.
- Pin the end of the bag closed, seam allowance folded in, and topstitch twice along the end.
Practice Notes 