Doing it with Tara: Fluffy Balls5

by Tara Diane

I feel like I need to add a disclaimer to this post, so: Disclaimer: there will be tons of ball jokes in this entry. Also, I promise I’m not playing a joke where I trick you guys into making as many random circle things as possible (this, contact paper, string lamp thing), I am just not that artistic and circles are really freaking easy to make!

Anyways, I came across this tutorial on making cloth pom pom ball shits on Chinese lanterns. I thought they were pretty cool, but decided I needed to jazz it up a little bit and figure out a lazier way of doing it. Our balls are going to be quite a bit larger than theirs. I basically just steal other people’s ideas and make them better most of the time!

What You’ll Need

• A foam ball (usually near the fake flowers in craft stores).
• Corsage pins. (I used a box of 90. They are probably located near the balls.)
• Lots of scrap fabric (if you don’t have any, it’s probably cheapest to thrift a bunch of shirts or dresses).
• Scissors.
• String and a hook, for hanging.

Start out by cutting, well, a fuck ton of fabric squares. I used almost 90 squares, but you could use less if you space them farther apart when you pin them in. Thicker fabrics stay better, but it’s fun to mix up different textures. My balls were made of velvet, tulle, and satin. I cut up a dress I had worn to an ’80s party. My squares were about 6 inches, or whatever size that box of poop bars that I’m tracing is.

Hopefully those pictures make sense, but basically just fold the square into a triangle, fold one side to the middle, then fold the other side to the middle. I can’t explain this fabric origami and I don’t really think folding these in a specific way will make a difference anyway.

Stick a corsage pin through the bottom of your folded fabric thingy, and poke it into the ball. I chose to stick the squares into the ball in groups of about five, but you could mix them all up or do stripes or some other cool shit, if that’s what floats your boat.

Keep doing that until your ball is completely filled up.

Tie a string around a corsage pin and stick it into your ball. I had to stick a few bobby pins through the ball/string to keep it sturdy, but maybe you’ll be lucky and not have to do that. Attach a hook to your ceiling and hang that biatch up.

I really like my ball, but I feel like it’s a bit lonely. Balls like to be in pairs, but more than two would be good also. Now I’ve got a handle on the ball thing, I’m probably going to make a threesome, personally, but the more balls the merrier!

Have a good week

:]