Turn old jeans into a ball!

 

 

 

I believe I first saw the link to this on Craft Gossip, but technically, I found the instructions here.

I just love this idea!  And it couldn't be easier. I learned that it also works really, really well with fleece and  you don't have to sew a button hole for that!  I recently made 10 out of fleece to give to children attending a barbecue we had.  I didn't think to take any pictures of those, but they were a huge hit with ALL the kids (aged from 1½ to 14!).  I just made sure that the stretch of the fleece went across the ball.

 

For the denim ball, I started with a pair of old, well-loved, ripped jeans. 

 

 

And I cut my pieces out.

I followed the instructions for the first little bit, then stopped.  Don't do that!  I sewed up all the large pieces and then had to rip a seam.  You don't sew it completely together by machine because you need a hole so that you can machine sew the two end pieces on.  One end piece has a button hole to insert your balloon through.  Once you have the end pieces sewn in, you hand sew the remaining seam.
You poke an uninflated balloon through the button hole, blow it up and tie it, then just stuff the knot into the ball.

 

Fantastic entertainment!  The kids, from the youngest to the oldest (and even some of the 'grown ups') played with these at the barbecue, then the kids took theirs home.  They got a little dirty, but you just have to pop and remove the balloon, toss the ball in the washer, and replace the balloon next time you want the ball.

 

The author of the instructable I followed points out that you can also bounce this off people's heads without causing damage.  Yup!  That is correct!  It was done over and over again.

 

I'll bet these would work if they were made smaller and used (air-filled) water balloons.

 

Thanks for looking!!!!

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