Pentagon Ball
I promised a cute project for that leftover fabric from the Jacob’s Ladder project. Remember this one:
(Here the link to the original article, found <here>.) In the example, there was a piece of fabric approximately 23″ x 9.5″ in both pink and white. Here’s a cute option beyond saving it in your stash!
The pentagon shape, or a five equidistant sided ball in essence looks like a soccer ball when it is sewn together and stuffed. Here is a Youtube video with Rob Appell of Man Sewing #mansewing found here. I found this pattern back in July 2015, and have made a few of them since them – mostly to match baby quilts. Rob also shares a .pdf of his pattern, and it can be found here. Rob made his pentagon ball out of 5″ squares or fabric from a charm pack. I have also done this, but it does make a large ball. Too big, in my opinion, for a baby.
I took his pattern piece and downsized it on a copy machine. The size is totally up to you! I tried it at 50% which makes a small, baby fist-sized ball but it is a little hard to sew (so many small pieces). I reduced it by only 25%, and I found that to be the winning size for me. Try it out – 3″, 3.5″ or 4″ would all be just as easy to sew as the 5″ version. All of these sizes could easily fit on the leftover piece of fabrics.
Pentagon ball
You will need to trace six out of each color. Be sure to do it on the wrong size of the fabric! When you cut them out you will be able to tell the right sides by the tracing marks, and the marks will be hidden in the seam allowance. No need to panic about that. Lay out the fabric however you find it pleasing to you. The center squares can both be the same color or different – it is whatever you like the best. Once you have sewn all sides together except for a short area to turn the ball wrong-side in, it is ready for stuffing.
I have used a variety of things for stuffing. Obviously, foam filling is best and it takes a ton of it to fill these pentagon balls. I have also saved cotton batting scraps and used that too – not for the whole ball, but for the center with the softer foam filling on the outside where it gets squished and handled. Whatever you use, fill it good and full! So much so that you can hardly close that seam that you left open – use a whip stitch to close it and it is ready to go.
Can’t you just imagine all those little baby hands clutching it, teething it and even throwing it?! It’s great because it’s not going to hurt anyone or anything, and it is a mini stash buster at the same time. Win-win! What do you think?
