Seasonal Chapters: toy soccer ball

Both of my children played on various sports teams from the time they were in kindergarten through high school. Although they both love playing and watching many different sports, soccer holds a special place in my son's heart. Therefore, it really shouldn't have surprised me when David said he wanted to create a soccer themed gift for his girlfriend's twin nephews. The boys recently celebrated their first birthday, so regular soccer balls may be a bit too much for them to comfortably handle just yet. David came up with the idea of creating "stuffed fabric" ones, and I must admit, when he first presented the idea to me, I didn't think it would be something we could do. However, with his encouragement (aka "persistence"), I decided to attempt it, and purchased the fabric and stuffing.. The first step involved creating hexagon and pentagon templates. We measured the ones on a regular soccer ball and created similar sized ones for this project. I then used a rotary cutter to create 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons for each soccer ball.

We honestly had no specific plan when I began sewing the first ball together.David kept one of his soccer balls nearby for reference and would place the cut out shapes in a pattern for me to pin together before moving over to the sewing machine. I wish I could tell you the project went smoothly, but there were a few times that we had to rip out a a seam (or two or three) as the ball was under construction because I joined the wrong sides together. Once we finished the first ball, we were sure there had to be a more systematic way to join the shapes. David ended up finding a pattern on line that we decided to try to follow before beginning the second ball. I don't know the site that this pattern is originally from, so I can't give credit to the source. This is unfortunate as I would love to thank the creator of the pattern, because the second ball came together without one seam needing to be redone!

I'll be the first to admit that the pattern was a bit overwhelming at first, but I began to number the shapes and mark them off on the pattern as I joined them together. I also kept the first ball we made nearby as a reference.

It gets a little tricky as the ball starts to take shape, but I kept referring back to the pattern before pinning more sides together.

Before long, the second soccer ball was complete...

The twins haven't been given their new handmade toys yet, but Uncle Dave was sure to "test" each one out by dribbling the soccer balls around the house a bit. Although far from perfect, they were sort of cute when they were complete...and much softer, safer, and easier for toddlers to handle than real soccer balls.