Making a Sofa Out of Plastic Bags and Used Balloons

I had an old sofa structure in my house and I felt sorry to just dump it. So decided to keep it for something. Besides, I worked on a project involving thousands of balloons (You can check it out here) and I did not want to throw them away after being used, so I came up with the idea of using them as stuffing for the couch.

This instructable has been made thinking of a couch but you can use the idea for cushions, puff sofas or stuff like that. In this case I had hundreds of used balloons, but you can use clean food wrappings, plastic bags or anything you can come up with.

Other things you might need:
-fabric
-big and strong (REALLY STRONG) bags
-stapler
-pins
-hammer
-cord
-any old sofa or chair structure

Clean the basic structure to start working

Fill your big and strong bags with all the collected material (as I mentioned before, you might use clean food wrappings, plastic bags, used balloons, etc). Make sure they are filled completely, otherwise the couch will not be very comfortable. After you have enough bags, sew the border or tie a knot to keep everything inside (in this case, I used an office stapler.... sorry... I was a bit lazy, but it worked well) and save them for a while.

Start covering the structure with a fabric of your choice. I used the cheapest fabric available. Matching the color of the sofa with the color of the cushions will result in a good looking couch. I know I should have used a carpenter stapler , but since I did not have one (the office stapler I had is useless here), I used office pins.

After you upholster the basic parts of the structure, try to find a place in one of the inside corners of the couch to attach a cord. After doing this step, start putting the already filled bags on place. Try to attach them somehow to the structure so whenever you have to turn the structure upside down, they will not fall off. You can use another cord to do this, but do not used the one coming from the corner, because you will use it later. I do not have any pictures of the way I attached them, but it was not a big deal, just make sure they are fixed in their place.

After you have finished setting the bags on place, you will have to cover them with the rest of the fabric. Start with the back of the couch and then, cover the part where you rest your back while sitting. You will use the previously attached cord to strengthen the fabric and avoid any wrinkles.

You should already have something pretty much finished. Before enjoying, sew the fabric where you think it is necessary so it will not move or wrinkle where you sit.

Now you can sit and relax.... You might want to make some cushions that match the color of the couch. I will upload pics of the couch with some red cushions I will make as soon as I find some free time. Thanks for reading!!! I will appreciate any recommendations or pics of things you do following this idea.