Sweater balls?? I think so!!!

I have an addiction to making *things* out of other *things*.  Curtains out of sheets, swags out of eggs, mittens from sweaters;  you get the idea!  So while I was searching through the "wireless highway" of treasures I could make out of crap I already have I came across a simple picture of a colorful ball made out of old sweaters!

So I thought because I had an entire garbage bag full of old sweaters in my ginormous closet of "junk I need to make other junk" (I have them to make more mittens!)  I would try and make a cute little baby ball.  But I wanted to make it more my own creation and not just like the one I saw in the picture.  So I added tags from different types of  ribbon and ric rac!

I made a pattern kinda in the shape of a leaf and cut away at my sweaters.  The sleeves were the perfect size- plus then you can cut 2 at a time!  Then it was trial and error - I pinned and added my loops as I went in a random order - After I was done sewing the actual *leaf* pieces together - the top and bottom were open so I turned it right side out and stuffed the day lights out of it!  This thing is SSSSOOOOO soft and squishy! 

Then I sewed up the top and bottom.  All I did was line the points together and quick hand stiched it, because it was going to be underneath the little circle anyway.  Then I cut 2 circles out of the cuff of one sweater.  I traced a spool of ribbon for my circles.  Then I pinned them down and with 3 strands of embroidery thread I stiched around each circle!

VIOLA!  A cute, soft, safe, GREEN gift for a tiny little person!  If you should have any variation or suggestions I would love to hear them!

Happy crafting

Steph