balloon ball tutorial

BalloonBallTutorial

Materials:

• Afatquarteroffabric• Patterncutouts• Pencil• Scissors• Rotaryblade&cuttingmat(it’sokayifyoudon’thavethese)

• Seamripper• Pins&needles• Sewingmachine

Layoutyourfabric.Ihighlysuggestironingitbeforeuse.Makesureit’sinsideout&foldedinhalf.Iliketoputpinsinthebottomedgesothatmyfabricdoesn’tmove.Thenstarttracingthetemplatewithpencil.Youwillneedtotrace4ovalishshapesandoneoctagontogetthetotal8ovalsand2octagons.

Oncethey’realltraced,insertsomepinsinsidetheshapestoprepareforcutting

Theseshapescanbetrickytocut,sousingscissorsisprobablyeasiestunlessyou’reaproatrotaryblades.Ialmosthadafewaccidents,butImanaged!It’sratherredeemingtogetaperfectlycutoutshape.

Onceyouhaveall5cutouts,we’rereadytoroll!

Incomesthesewingmachine!Graboneofyourovalsandsewdownjustoneside.Startwherethestraightpartstops,anddon’tforgettobackstitch.Asyoucansee,Icausedmyselfalotofgriefbyputtingeverysinglepininbackwards.

Keeptheedgeofthefabricrightupontheedgeofyourfootforanicecleanseam.

Onceyou’vedonethatone,dothesametotheother3ovals.

Okay!Nowthatall4ovalshaveaseamdownjustoneside,wecanstartpiecingthemainpartoftheballtogether.Openupapairofovalsandinsertitintoanotherpair,keepingtherightsidesofthefabricfacingeachother.

Pinthemtogetherandrunaseamdowntheedge,justasyoudidwiththepairs.Nowyouhavehalfaball!Setthishalfasideandrepeatwiththeothertwosections.

Nowwe’regoingtojointhetwosections.Keepingrightsidestogether,lineuptherawedgesofthehalves.Pinthemtogether&sewtheedge.Itlookssocoolatthisstage!

Fittogetherthelasttwoedgesandseamthem.

Oohlookastarfruit!Setyourballbodyasideforamoment…

…andgrabanoctagon.Makealinewithyourpencilonthewrongside,aboutaninchorsolong.Itdoesn’thavetobestraightorexact,it’sjustgoingtoactasaguide.

Thispartisgoingtobetricky.Ihavearathersimplesewingmachine,soIdon’tknowhowthiswouldbeaccomplishedonothertypes,butthelengthofthestitchwillbesetat0,ortheshortestsettingavailable,andthewidth(thinkzig‐zag)issetat3,aboutamedium.

Positiontheoctagonunderthefootsothatthelineisjusttotherightoftheneedle.

Slowlysewdowntheedgeoftheline.Youmayhavetopullthefabricabittokeepitmoving.

Whenyoureachtheendofyourline,stop,makingsuretheneedleisstillinthefabric.Liftupthefoot.

Carefullyturnthefabricwiththeneedlestillinitsothattheendofyourlineisnowatthetop.

Overlapthefirstfewstitcheswiththeonesontheothersideoftheline,thentrytoveerawayatadandoverlapagainattheendoftheline.

Ifyourstitchingwentwell,itshouldcomeoutsomethinglikethis.

Nowwe’regoingtomakeahole.Insertyourseamripperintothemiddleofthetwolinesandripup,tryingnottorunoveranyofthoseneatstitches.

Aren’tyougladwe’redonewiththatmessnow?Guesswhat,there’smore!

Lineupeachtaboftheovalswithasideoftheoctagon.Ifoundoutlaterthatit’smucheasiertopineveryothertabratherthanallofthem.Keeprightsidestogether.Theedgeoftheoctagonshouldbepositionedslightlyunderneaththevisiblestitchesofthesides.Carefullysewaroundtheoctagon.

Repeatthesameprocessfortheotherendoftheballwiththeotheroctagon.

Theballiscomplete!Therearejustafewmorethingstodo.Snipanyleftoverthreadsthatmaybehangingaround.

Usingtheholewemadeearlier,reachthroughandpinchthebottomoftheballandpullthroughthehole.

Finally,we’reatthefunpart!Findyourselfaballoon!Stickitinthehole,blowitup,tieit,andhavefun!