Yes, it’s time for a tutorial, don’t you think? I promised this one when I made balls early this summer and quite a few of you were interested in learning how to make this pretty toy! I have had it on my to do-list since then but haven’t come around to actually sitting down and creating a tut start to finish, mostly because it takes a few hours to do it. But yeah, today I finally did it!

Do you have some balls?
Playful – a toy ball for my cousin Jennifer.

Tutorial I’m doing this today not only because I’ve promised to do this tutorial but as a gesture of thankfulness for what you give to me. It’s free to download, print and use – right now! I bet you have all the “ingredients” at home already!? Also as a part of the August crusade with the theme: Pay it forward:

Think about what you are grateful for – a kindness of some kind that has been directed your way, and then think about how you can honor that kindness by paying it forward to someone else.
Michelle Ward

I’ve already expressed some gratitude this month by sending off small gifts in the mail. And today I’ve scanned, worked in InDesign and tried to find words to correctly describe how to make one! Please let me know if it’s confusing or if you have some tips! I used the layout that I created for my first PDF tutorial How to make decoupage magnets, but with some modifications (improvements). I had fun until it was time to save it and it said dash argument invalid, but that’s fixed now! I hope you like it!? Let me know!

Do you have some balls?
My 1970’s brown ball, that I’ve made since my last post about balls; Hand sewing is my new meditation! Yummy fabrics!

Here is the rest of my bunch:
Do you have some balls?
Once you start hand sewing these you won’t be able to stop with just one!

So to get started, download and print the tutorial: How to sew a patchwork ball pdf!

Edit: Just after I’d posted this I saw similar tutorial on the same kind of balls but with more images, please go there too if you need more tips and hints! Even easier to make are the Fabric Beach balls that you can sew in a machine and don’t need paper-piecing for! Have fun, that’s all I’m asking! [found via WhipUp.net]