Leather Ball

[electrathon]

Attached is a picture of a leather ball I have been working on. I looked for a long time to find a pattern and finally decided to cut apart a ball, tweak it a little, clean it up and go from there.

Aaron

ball .pdf

[Phatdaddy]

Attached is a picture of a leather ball I have been working on. I looked for a long time to find a pattern and finally decided to cut apart a ball, tweak it a little, clean it up and go from there.

Aaron

Aaron,

That's very cool, I make my daughter little trinkets all the time, but I was wondering what i could make for 2 yo son that would be suitable for a boy. I think this is it! Thanks a ton for sharing.

Kevin

ps. What did you use for the filling/stuffing?

Edited May 7, 2012 by Phatdaddy

[electrathon]

Aaron,

That's very cool, I make my daughter little trinkets all the time, but I was wondering what i could make for 2 yo son that would be suitable for a boy. I think this is it! Thanks a ton for sharing.

Kevin

ps. What did you use for the filling/stuffing?

Kevin,

I had some spongy blanket material that I cut up into little pieces. I just kept stuffing till it got firm, then sewed the last two inches shut.

Aaron

[Tinneal]

Great work!

I wonder if it would work to stuff it full of of straw like they do with horse collars.

[mrdabeetle]

I recently found this: http://www.jugglingd...ngpatterns.html

I made this leather covered bottle with it.

This is the 3 section, 3" ball pattern

[electrathon]

I recently found this: http://www.jugglingd...ngpatterns.html

I made this leather covered bottle with it.

This is the 3 section, 3" ball pattern

Those look like round bottom boiling flasks.

[mrdabeetle]

I got them for a dollar each at Michael's. Wal-mart has some similar ones with etching on the "globe" section.

You may find this interesting.

Edited May 8, 2012 by mrdabeetle

[Sylvia]

reminds me of the old school leather hacky sacks. I think they were filled with sand or small beans

These days I dont' think you could find a leather hackysack... it's all hemp, cotton or faux suede.

[electrathon]

I got them for a dollar each at Michael's. Wal-mart has some similar ones with etching on the "globe" section.

You may find this interesting.

http://vimeo.com/19706420

I do like the look of the covered round bottles.

Round bottom boiling flask is out of the TV series Breaking Bad, was not sure if anyone would recognize it.

reminds me of the old school leather hacky sacks. I think they were filled with sand or small beans

These days I dont' think you could find a leather hackysack... it's all hemp, cotton or faux suede.

I few of the kids that I teach Electrathons with wanted me to teach them to make Hacki Sacks. Not sure in any of them are willing to work hard enough to actually sew one though. After about 10 minutes they will want to go to the store and buy one.

Edited May 9, 2012 by electrathon

[Sylvia]

That's why you break up your time into segments.

10 minutes "today we are doing this"

10 minutes.. "here's how you do it"

20 minutes "practice and trouble shooting"

20 minutes "clean up and review/ how did you do?"

Your hyper kids aren't too bored and the ones who want to do it... will sit and work as fast as they can.

Gosh I just flashed on a program I truly believed was ran by Jim Henson of Muppet fame. We had a puppet making workshop...LOL It was fun and I had that puppet for a long time.

[mrdabeetle]

I have found that if you supply ready to assemble "kits", the kids are less bored and will pay more attention. It is better to have more than one instructor showing how to do it, as there are often more than one who make small mistakes and get stuck. This way, the group can finish about the same time and everyone can be proud of the work they did to make something cool. I was a scoutmaster for a short time before life got in the way.

[terix]

Thanks, I need some new ideas!

[Rock]

Attached is a picture of a leather ball I have been working on. I looked for a long time to find a pattern and finally decided to cut apart a ball, tweak it a little, clean it up and go from there.

Aaron

Tks Aaron

This project was in the Leather Crafters and Saddlers Journal ( May-June 2012) and I did it as well turn out so nice, I used 3 side basket stamp, I re-use the inside of the ball ( so still a Baseball) and I give it to my Cousin Son and I totally forgot to take a picture, well I guess I will have to do an other one for ME....lol

I also stamp my Leather Stamp on it. I had to be very careful as I use 3-4 oz leather and I dye it Saddle tan, will post a picture next time.

Rock

[HellfireJack]

Those look like round bottom boiling flasks.

Do you watch Breaking Bad by any chance?

The Al Stohlman case making books have patterns for bowling ball bags that is essentially the same except larger.

[electrathon]

Do you watch Breaking Bad by any chance?

I have seen them all up to the current season. I don't get it on TV so I have to wait till it is out on video. The series has taken a number of twists since it strated. Really a sad and intense show when you think about what has happened in his life since taking the direction he chose.

[HellfireJack]

Oh haha I didn't see your response about it above. That was the first thing I thought of when I read "round bottom boiling flask".

Awesome show. I've watched it all the way through as well. Fifth and final season starts this Sunday. The Walking Dead is another awesome AMC show. Very dark as well.

Those flask covers look like a better way to make a leather bottle. Remove that glass and split that top piece to incorporate a neck. Probably easier than trying to stretch wet leather with barley.

[electrathon]

Awesome show. I've watched it all the way through as well. Fifth and final season starts this Sunday. The Walking Dead is another awesome AMC show. Very dark as well.

I had no theard of walking dead till a couple weeks ago. I boght the series and watched it all. It is an interesting show too. i work for a Public Works shop and the director is all convinced the world is coming to an end, everything now has to be about the end of world.

[lazybum]

Hey just wanted to say thanks for the pattern. It didn't end up perfectly round and I realised it was because the pattern wasn't very symetrical. So I tweaked it with photoshop to make it symmetrical for rounder results.Below is what I ended up with, using spongy stress balls as the core.

Wouldn't have done it without the original pattern though. Thanks! Thought id share my pattern in case anyone needs it. Its sized for a stress ball, about the size of a real basball, can't remember the exact measurements though. You may have to tweak the size to fit your core.

Edited March 24, 2013 by lazybum

[electrathon]

Awsome! Yours looks better than mine. Thanks for fixing the pattern too, mine also ended up a little square.

[lazybum]

No prob! For best results use a round core. And its usually better to size the pattern a bit smaller than larger. At least if its tight the leather can stretch. If theres too much material it tends to bunch up in areas which spoils the round shape.

[electrathon]

I think the issue I had was I used cut up cloth as a core. I just packed it in till it was full. I tried to shape it as I was filling. My pattern was a photocopy of a real ball. I think the shape was altered trying to flatten out the rounded areas. The final stitch was the hardest to keep symetrical.

[Alvetjarn]

Wow, this was a nice little thread! Special thanks to lazybum for the real pattern :-)

[RandallFlagg]

What size leather is used and what is the stitch style called? Id love to make one for my son, and nephews.

[johnggrg]

Real cool thread. Thank you for sharing. John

[electrathon]

What size leather is used and what is the stitch style called? Id love to make one for my son, and nephews.

I used scrap that was about 7oz but that was way thick. The stitch is called a ... baseball stitch. The hardest part of the sewing was closing the last stitch and it still looking the same.