Fabric Beach Balls
These fabric balls are the perfect handmade baby gift, multicolored, soft and round.....what's not to love! Sewers of all levels will have fun making these toys that will be worthy of passing down from generation to generation.
Enjoy! --Page
Materials
We recommend 1/4 yard of each fabric to leave room for error.
These are the fabric I used:
Large Ball
- Nani Iro White Tossed Flowers
- Yuwa Honeycomb in Red
- Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton in True Cobalt
- Carolina Chambray in Royal
Medium Ball
Small Ball
- Nani Iro White Scattered Dots
- Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton in Daffodil
- Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton in Persimmon
- Yuwa Honeycomb in Blue
Other Materials
- Cotton Stuffing
- Cotton Thread that blends with chosen fabrics - We used #1040, #5910, and #6800
- Fabric scissors
- Applique needle
The Pattern
Finished Measurements
- Small ball: approximately 5-inches diameter
- Medium ball: approximately 7-inches diameter
- Large ball: approximately 9-inches diameter
Download this template for the small and medium balls, and this template for the large ball.
You will need to cut eight fabric pieces total to make each ball. We used two each of four different fabrics for ours.
Fold fabric in half by lining up the selvages so that you can cut two pieces at a time. Lay template on the fabric and trace with a pencil. Cut the fabric on the drawn line. Repeat this process with the remaining fabrics so you have eight pieces total.
Pin the cut pieces in pairs right sides together, carefully aligning the points and edges.
Chain-piece the pairs, sewing past the points at each end using a 1/4-inch seam allowance. You don't need to backstitch because you'll reinforce these seams when sewing the pairs together. Be sure to make smooth curves as you are sewing so that the ball will be nicely rounded. After chain-piecing, carefully cut the threads between each pair. Press the seams to the side of the darker fabric.
Pair the pieces once more, aligning their cut edges with right sides together and pin them together. Sew them together to create two half-sphere shapes with four pieces each. Press seams to the side of the darker fabric.
Turn one half-sphere right side out, and tuck it inside the other half-sphere, with right sides together. Align the points and edges, and pin the two pieces together. You'll want to begin one of your seams 1- inch from the point to leave an opening for you to turn the ball right side out and to stuff it. Take care not to sew over the nice points you've made at the ends when stitching the previous seams. Your top seam should just intersect the point where the previous seams meet.
Turn the ball right side out through the opening, and stuff it firmly, making a spherical ball.
Fold and finger-press the edges of the opening 1/4 inch to the inside to create a clean edge. Using a blindstitch, carefully hand-sew the opening closed, stitching just inside the fold for an invisible seam.
Cut two circles for each ball to sew at each end. We recommend using the darkest solid fabric for this since it is a way to cover the part where all the seams come together which isn't always perfect. We cut a 2 -inch circle for the large ball, a 1 3/4-inch circle for the medium ball, and a 1 1/2-inch circle for the small ball. Fold and iron the edges of the circle approximately 1/8-inch. Hand-sew the circles on each end of the ball using a hand stitch.
If the balls have gotten a bit misshapen while sewing on the circles, manipulate them back into a nice spherical shape and you're good to go!
August 15, 2008