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Tutorial: How to handsew a patchwork ball!

Aug 19th, 2008 by iHanna

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 whip up]

Posted in Quilting, Tutorials, Design and layout

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40 Responses to “Tutorial: How to handsew a patchwork ball!”

  1. on 19 Aug 2008 at 13:03   karmologyclinic

    cute toy! pdf links to the decoupage magnets tut btw

  2. on 19 Aug 2008 at 13:52   Jazmin

    That is such a fabulous idea! I can see a few of them thrown casually in a white wicker basket. Gorgeous!

  3. on 19 Aug 2008 at 14:12   Kristi

    Thank so much for sharing this tutorial! I know lots of little ones that would love to roll these around, and I agree that they would look so sweet in little bowls around the house!

  4. on 19 Aug 2008 at 14:15   Oiyi

    Awesome! Thank you so much. They look great.

  5. on 19 Aug 2008 at 14:24   Robyn

    Let us know when the link is fixed, they look really cute to make!

  6. on 19 Aug 2008 at 16:05   Sister Diane

    These are utterly charming. Now I’m dying to make one. Thank you for the great tutorial!

  7. on 19 Aug 2008 at 17:13   Jodi aka soNOTcool

    My daughter is just learning to sew, and so (no pun intended!) these tutorials are just what she needs. Plus, these are very cute and would make great gifts for her little cousins. :)

  8. on 19 Aug 2008 at 17:39   JeriAnn

    A gift for everyone — what a great way to pay it forward!

    The balls are beautiful and I’d bet they’d look good piled in a large bowl on a coffee table. A good use for all those fabric scraps we can’t part with.

    Thanks!

  9. on 19 Aug 2008 at 20:56   Rachel

    That is so cute! I want to make a bunch of tiny ones for my cats. Totally linking to this in the Daily DIY today!

  10. on 19 Aug 2008 at 23:36   jojoebi

    Ohhh I really want to try this! :o)

  11. on 19 Aug 2008 at 23:57   suzy

    Hi Hanna,
    These balls look great… I will come back later to download the PDF when the link is fixed.
    Thanks for sharing!
    Suzy.

  12. on 20 Aug 2008 at 6:55   TJ

    Hello Hanna!
    These are so beautiful. I can’t wait to try make one from my little boy. I’m having trouble finding the .pdf however. It brings me to a magnet tutorial. (Although that looks fun too!) xoxoxo tj

  13. on 20 Aug 2008 at 10:31   eugenia gina

    Hanna, love it, so simple and soo pretty, gotta make one!

  14. on 20 Aug 2008 at 11:48   iHanna
    Hey everyone!
    I couldn’t find the link myself so it’s not strange that you didn’t see it - it was wrongly linked and I’m so sorry! I hope you can get it now because I’ve fixed the link! Let me know what you think when you SEE it (use it/read it)! ;-) XXO
  15. on 20 Aug 2008 at 13:14   Lix

    Thanks for the tutorial!

  16. on 20 Aug 2008 at 14:02   Janine

    What a wonderful gesture Hanna! These will make gorgeous gifts for little ones! Thank you!

  17. on 20 Aug 2008 at 15:12   Michelle Ward

    thanks for sharing your tutorial, great way to use scraps. and thanks for playing on the team again.

  18. on 20 Aug 2008 at 20:00   TJ

    Hanna,
    Your tutorial is awesome! Thank you for re-linking for us. I’ve never paper-pieced so I appreciate a project that is achievable and fun. xoxoxo tj

  19. on 21 Aug 2008 at 8:38   inge

    hello Hanna,

    the balls look so cute ! I can image they are very calming to make and afterworths seeing the smile on the face of the child that gets it…

    thanks for the tutorial, I printed it out, cause it looks tempting !

    greets
    Inge from belgium

  20. on 21 Aug 2008 at 21:32   tinker

    These are all so cute! Your handstitching looks so neat and tidy too.
    This would make a lovely project for autumn and winter evenings, to make just in time for a Christmas present for a little one - well if I could get at least one whole one finished :)
    Thank you for the tutorial!

  21. on 22 Aug 2008 at 8:35   iHanna
    Thanks for your comments, so happy you liked this project! i did too!

    Inge!
    If you give it to a child please send me a picture - I’d love to see the smiles too! :-)

    Jeri-Ann!
    A pile of balls on the coffee table is my kind of fun, since I don’t have any kids but love toys anyway! :-)

  22. on 22 Aug 2008 at 14:07   Robyn

    Thanks for fixing the link! I want to try to make some!

  23. on 22 Aug 2008 at 14:38   Alicia

    Thank you for this tutorial! I just love your blog - so much creativity!

  24. on 22 Aug 2008 at 15:18   Chris

    Your tutorials are so great. Your enthusiasm is contagious, and I love your use of color. Thanks, Hanna!

  25. on 22 Aug 2008 at 16:35   iHanna’s Creative Space » Blog Archive » A giddy girl’s enthusiasm at work

    […] Link is fixed to my patchwork ball pdf tutorial, I’ve checked it and printed it myself. I think it looks neat! I bought a new to me magazine yesterday at an art exhibit that featured children’s book illustrations! It was so much fun and I couldn’t help myself playing with the movable images in the children’s corner… but schy, don’t tell anyone! They showed art by Maira Kalman for example, isn’t that cool? From New York to my little town here in Sweden. The magazine was about children’s art and is called Opsis kalopsis! Hihi. In the mail I have also received Dawn Sokol’s traveling Moleskine and a wordbook from my cool web-acquaintance Imelda Wubber (oh I adore her name! I want to have such cool name!). The book is called Zweedsch-Nederlandsch Woodenboek!!! […]

  26. on 22 Aug 2008 at 18:19   toni

    These. are. precious. I don’t have a crafty bone in my body, and boy I wish I did have it. I want to make these!

  27. on 23 Aug 2008 at 21:50   rein

    These are great!

  28. on 23 Aug 2008 at 22:39   iHanna
    Toni, the “crafty” does not come from your bones but your heart, I feel it in your comment already that you have it, and if you have the wish to make… you should absolutely try it out, I think you can make these! Good luck! :-)
  29. on 24 Aug 2008 at 2:58   Lucy

    omg! adorable. i love the brown 70’s one….brown and white polka dots!

    thanks for the tut!

  30. on 29 Aug 2008 at 2:55   Serena

    Thanks so much for the awesome tutorial, Hanna! :)

  31. on 09 Sep 2008 at 12:45   Jason (Juggler)

    Oh my, these look amazing, really great :D

    How did you get the ball stuffed so full? I’ve tried stitching juggling balls before, but a full fill was so hard to achieve. Any help?

    How does the finishing/closing stitch look? I had problems with that too :S

    Great tutorial and stitching
    Jason

  32. on 10 Sep 2008 at 10:11   iHanna
    Jason the Juggler,
    how on earth did you find this my wee blog?! Anyway, I stuff everything with little chunks at a time, not a bit load at once. In this way you fill it out slowly and it gets to be very hard. Maybe you did you filled yours with big bits and had “air holes” then? I don’t know. On the sewing I can’t explain it in word and I think you should ask someone to show you, your mom or a friend that knows sewing!

    Good luck!

  33. on 10 Sep 2008 at 18:19   Jason (Juggler)

    Hehe

    I certainly don’t think this is a wee blog, look at the comments! If you want to see a wee blog, see mine :P (shameless promotion)

    I’m not sure what you mean but I found out some ways to get a tight fill since, but thanks anyways.

    I think I could make some more of these balls, they look pretty cool, definitely should try my hand at it.

    Here are some juggling prop sites, have you seen these balls? They look pretty nice, but I don’t think the quality is as good as yours, what do you think:

    www.sportjugglingco.com
    www.gballz.com
    baglady.procis.net/

    You could be serious competition :P

  34. on 21 Sep 2008 at 17:03   iHanna
    I was looking for a tutorial online on how to close the balls with a stitch for you and now I’ve found it by looking for something else. The stitch is called “ladder stitch” and you can see how to sew it here:

    http://orangeflowerpatterns.blogspot.com/2008/08/ladder-stitch.html

    Great tutorial site by the way!

  35. on 21 Sep 2008 at 17:10   Jason (Juggler)

    Thanks for looking at it for me, it was most helpful and definitely gave me an insight, this will help me finish on my balls :D

    Now let’s find some fabric huh :D Ultraleather perhaps?

    This is going to be tough, I’ll contact you again with results XD

    J

  36. on 17 Oct 2008 at 1:36   Tee

    These are beautiful. I have been searching for a long time for a simple pattern to make a stuffed ball. This one seems to fit the bill for me. I looked at many of those 6 piece beach-ball type patterns, and every picture I saw of them.. did not look round at all. i’m not sure if the makers did not stuff them fully, but yours do seem to be beautifully round. The corners of the pentagons do not even protrude. I have a large project that I need the perfect ball pattern for.. and I think this may be it ^_^ thank you so much. P.S. what are your thoughts about how well this would work if I did it about 10x the size?

  37. on 17 Oct 2008 at 21:26   iHanna
    Tee, glad you liked the pattern and will use it. I think it would not matter how large the patches were as long as you did the proportions right! Good luck, let me know if your big balls work!

    Thanks for commenting here!

    Have fun!

  38. on 14 Jan 2009 at 12:52   iHanna’s Creative Space » Blog Archive » Craft Accomplishments Report (part II)

    […] I’ve sewn several bags and totes, a pen case, log cabin pillow cases and hand sewn quite a few patchwork balls! I’ve embroidered free form, crocheted a duckling, covered a outdoor table with mosaic that crackled after just a few weeks and I knitted with hand carved sticks. I’ve glued buttons to a plaster tree, sewn them on a knitted sweater that my mom made for me and also put buttons together as bracelets. I ♥ buttons! I sewed a Flamingo bag (sold), a Mermaid Doll (for a swap with ocean theme) and a few jeans bags with recycled material! Fun fun fun! […]

  39. on 05 Jul 2009 at 16:48   Jana

    Thank you very much for tutorial. I never sew, but when I sew this your ball i decided to change and yesterday I created ball for my little allex. Is not best, but is my first creation.:o) So thank you!

  40. on 05 Jul 2009 at 21:16   iHanna
    Jana, your son is so cute and looks so happy with the ball, thanks for letting me know that you made one.

    You did a great job with the sewing, I’m so glad I inspired you try it out. The look on Alex little face is priceless!

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