Tutorial Week: Taggy Ball

The other day I came home from work to see this cute sight on my couch.

And being that I had one more gift to make for a certain nephew’s 1^st birthday, I left them sleeping and got straight to work.

For this project you’ll need:

            Sewing basics

            Ribbon (several kinds if possible)

            2 coordinating fat quarters

            Poly-fill

I started by cutting my patter out. (Email me at sewbynightdesigns (at) yahoo (dot) com if you want mine, or print the picture of it at full paper size) or you can make your own using my formula. 

Therefore if your height is 9 inches, you width at the fattest point will be 3 (6 inches high, 2 inches wide, and so on)  make sure your top and bottom is about 1 inch wide (2 half inch seam allowances) 

After you get your pattern right cut out 3 pieces of each fabric, you’ll have 6 pieces total.

Using one of the fabrics, attach a few taggies to each side.  This is where you can get creative (I made loops of ribbon, cutting each ribbon piece 2.5 inches long and folding in half.)    Pin each tag with the cut edges against the outer edge of the fabric, loops towards the middle. 

Start by taking one of each fabric and running a line of stitches along one side with a 1/2 inch seam allowance (I double stitched this to give the seams strength so he couldn’t put out the tags).

This is what it looks like when you open the seams

Continue to add panels alternating fabrics like this

Until you’ve attached all the panels together in a line (don’t finish the circle though).

Editor’s note:  make sure your seams meet on the top and bottom so there won’t be a hole in the ball.  If you don’t, (and make the same mistake I made) just gather all the pieces and run a seam across here:

Flip the ball right sides:

and stuff it (I like poly-fill.  Since it will probably go in the mouth and get wet, the polyester stuffing dries quicker) then hand stitch the final edge closed. 

And there you go! A Fun toy for baby in less than half an hour.