Juggling balls Tutorial - two ways

Following on from my post about homemade gifts, Wendy from South Africa asked how I make my juggling balls.  Juggling balls make a great gift for boys (and girls) in that hard to make for age - ie. 7-adult!  My kids go to a lot of parties for 7 year olds at the moment, so these are a popular gift in our household, but I know my teen and adult relatives would also like a set.

So here are two ways to make them.  Note the second method makes nicer and sturdier juggling balls :)

The first is a no-sew method - VERY easy and probably with items you have hanging around.

Materials (per ball)

• 1 small freezer bag
• 3 balloons
• 2/3 cup rice (or bird seed)
• sticky tape
• Scissors

How to do it:

1. Put your rice into the freezer bag nd tape the bag over to make sure the rice is secure
2. Chop the tail off your balloons
3. Stretch one balloon over the bag of rice and mould it into a round shape with your hands
4. Stretch your second and then third ballon over the top, covering up the hole in the first with the second and finishing with all balloons overlapping for a decorative effect.  You can cut an extra hole or two in the third balloon too to allow the other colours to show through.

NOTE: these are great, but won't last forever if used a lot.  The next ones are better for that.

  

The second is a sewing method.  Also easy (if you have a sewing machine) and made with small fabric scraps, so budget friendly too.

Materials (per ball)

• rectangle of fabric about 22 x 11cm - could be any non-stretch fabric (I used denim and cotton poplin, both either recycled or scraps from other projects)
• sewing machine threaded with matching thread
• about 1/2 cup of rice (or you can use bird seed or the plastic beads from craft shops)
• scissors
• iron and ironing board
• funnel

How to do it:

1. Cut your fabric into rectangles about 22cm x 11cm and iron flat.

2. Fold your rectangle in half lengthways (you will end up with a square) and using a straight stitch, sew around the bottom and side of the square.  (you can do 2 lines of stitching for strength if you like)

3. Fold over about 1cm all around the open end of the pocket and iron it down (don't skip this step or it is too much of a pain to sew!)

4. Turn your pocket back in the right way way, then take the two sides and hold them together.  This will make your triangular shape.

5. top stitch along the opening, leaving a section open at one end big enough for the end of your funnel to go in.

6. Fill up your triangular (kind of) shaped sack with rice.  Use the right amount of rice so that the sack is fairly full, but also so that you can finish sewing up the gap.

7. (this is the trickiest bit) Fiddle around a bit to get your juggling ball back under the sewing machine and stitch up the gap. 

8.  Make a couple more in the same or different fabrics and then either package them up with juggling instructions (lots of the web) or start juggling!

I'd love to eventually crochet some juggling balls too, but I'm thinking that will be less quick and easy......

Let me know if you make some and post a photo! :)