How To Sew A Soft Ball – What about a perfect baby-welcoming gift you can make in a really short time? This is an easy, step-by-step beginner sewing tutorial that shows you how to make a soft toy for a baby. I included lots of photos to make it super easy for you to sew a handmade gift to a special baby in your life – it’s a perfect beginner sewing project. And did I mention there is a free PDF sewing pattern waiting for you to download?
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This post is part of the FREE BABY SEWING PATTERNS series on this blog. Make sure to grab ALL of the free baby sewing patterns on this site:
Free Bandana Bib Pattern – Just the coolest dribble bib!
Free Pattern – Baby Burp Cloth
Free Baby Scarf Tutorial – With a Twist!Free Pattern – Fabric SailBoat Toy
Free Pattern – Baby Sensory Toy
And there are so many more! Now, off to sewing these softies: they are an all-time favorite with babies, so you cannot miss if you decide to make one yourself as a baby gift. In fact, I’ve made some as baby welcoming gifts myself – and they always, always turned out to be a great, personalized present.
Soft Ball Pattern
Join me, get your free PDF sewing pattern and learn how to make a cute toy all by yourself. It’s easy!
SUPPLIES
You’ll need:
-
- 5 pieces of 6×3 inch cotton fabric (Check out Peek-A-Boo shop for cute baby prints!)
- optional: pieces of satin ribbon to make loops
- some soft toy stuffing material
- coordinating sewing thread
- sewing machine, scissors,
- pins
- your FREE PDF Sewing Pattern (available in the subscriber-resource library for all newsletter subscribers – join the free newsletter here!)
And if you are looking for some adorable new fabric, you can check out these cute fabrics by peek-a-boo. (They’ve also got gorgeous baby prints!)
MORE TO SEW:
Soft Ball TUTORIAL:
I usually use a 1/4 inch seam allowance here (=approximately 7 mm in metric), the usual one for soft toys.
1) Use the PDF pattern to cut 5 pieces for the soft baby ball. Also cut several pieces of ribbon, each 2 inch (5 cm) in length. Arrange the individual leaves for sewing.
Soooo, your soft and cuddly fabric ball is ready for playing. Happy gift giving!
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becky says
My seams get all skewed as I add leaves. What's the trick to keeping them straight?
Damjana at AppleGreen Cottage says
Hi Becky,
does it help if you pin two leaves together (RST) before stitching?
Anonymous says
Is this washable with the stuffing material?
Damjana at AppleGreen Cottage says
Depends on the stuffing you use. I always make these soft balls with washable stuffing. Thanks for dropping by,
Sewing Made Simple says
Hi Damjana. I love your blog and so happy to find your project on Pinterest. Just want to personally thank you and let you know that I featured this project on my blog in my sewing for babies post.
Xoxo,
Amber
P.s. I’m a new fan. 🙂
Damjana at AppleGreen Cottage says
Amber,
thank you, that's so sweet of you! Let's stay in touch!
Anonymous says
Love this tutorial was so easy, I do however am wondering how you closed the hole up after stuffing it ??
Damjana at AppleGreen Cottage says
Oh thanks for drawing attention to this detail,
I haven't realized that I forgot to explain that in the tutorial: I just topstitched over the opening using the sewing machine. Hope this helps!
Annie says
Great toy! And a great project to use scrap fabrics!
Damjana at AppleGreen Cottage says
Annie,
thank you, I agree – I love to use scrap fabrics for these type of projects too!
Julia says
Made one of these for my one year old niece today and she loved it! Tutorial was so easy to follow, went from finding this page to finished toy in less than an hour 🙂
Damjana at AppleGreen Cottage says
Julia,
so happy to hear that! This is why the tutorial was made. Happy sewing!
Damjana
Anonymous says
Oh its so cute.. I am definitely going to make one for my 6 month old son.
Marni @ Haberdashery Fun says
Love this. You make it look so easy 🙂
Damjana at AppleGreen Cottage says
Marni, oh and it IS easy! It really took me a lot more time to photograph than to sew 🙂 Have a great day! Damjana
Pam @Threading My Way says
A great toy for a little one.
Damjana at AppleGreen Cottage says
Thank you!
Natashalh says
Very fun! A lot of my friends have new babies or are expecting. This would make a great gift!
z0fLfGKfaVUocFGPHFlJIJQQwp6719 says
Thanks, Natasha. Then you better get your sewing machine ready, babies love this soft and cuddly toy. Thanks for visiting 🙂
z0fLfGKfaVUocFGPHFlJIJQQwp6719 says
Hi Alisha,
thanks for visiting here.
z0fLfGKfaVUocFGPHFlJIJQQwp6719 says
Hehe, what I meant was sewing a multifunctional backpack with additional pockets/hidden/closed/on the inside… where you can keep your treasures and pencils and keys separated from the bulky items. But thanks for drawing my attention to zippers – they are luckily not an issue anymore but oh boy, they WERE – and your comment's just reminded me of a pile of zippered makeup bags I made a while ago… never hurts to practice some more, right? 🙂 Thanks
Googlowka says
I love it 🙂 I will definately make one for my little daughter 🙂
z0fLfGKfaVUocFGPHFlJIJQQwp6719 says
Thank you, Googlowka. I am happy to hear that. Post it on your blog, and I'll be happy to link to it. I'm curious how it will look like. I'd be soo happy now if I knew Polish, your blog has many tutorials 🙂 see you again
Ana Lopes says
Lovely project! Thanks for sharing great tutorial!
Hope you have an awesome week!
Hugs from Portugal,
Ana
z0fLfGKfaVUocFGPHFlJIJQQwp6719 says
Thanks, Ana. I hope the tutorial has intrigued you enough to try it – I see from your blog that you are very crafty yourself 🙂 Hugs from Slovenia