Grab Ball Toy

So there's a chance this is old news to some people, but somebody recently showed me a grab ball they made. I promptly started scouring the internet to find it, and found the pattern...for free! Here's the link: Grab Ball Tutorial. The tutorial was a little confusing at some points for me, but I'm also pretty new to sewing. A little tip if you want to save time (read: you're lazy and/or some steps in sewing patterns seem pointless and time consuming) here are a couple things I skipped. I didn't press any seams, actually I rarely ever press any seams on anything. I guess it's a wonder the stuff I make even turns out. I also didn't trim any of the corners off. I mean what's the point of that really? You're going to stuff the thing, so what's a little extra fabric on the inside? I used the plump version of the pattern. Here's how mine turned out!

I used snuggle fabric, which made for a very soft and snuggly ball. It was a little harder to work with though since it was so plush. If you want to avoid extra hassle and LOTS of fuzzies everywhere on everything that even thought about being near the fabric, you should go with something else. Sorry I didn't take more pictures during the process. If you want to imagine that I did, just picture that ball, not stuffed and in pieces, and little pieces of yellow fluff eeevverrrywhere (including my hair on one occasion).

It's a good project to do if you craft in spurts because you can just finish one section and easily come back to do another one later without having to figure out where you left off. Overall though I was thrilled with how it turned out. I'm thinking the plump version might be a little more forgiving if you make minor mistakes or your seams aren't totally straight because everything ends up smooshed together. I actually liked it so much I thought about making one for me and my husband. We don't have kids, but it is pretty fun to throw around...What? We had to test it to make sure it was safe (and fun) for the baby who's getting it as a gift. :)