Quick and easy baby gift.

Not sure if I told you but I have become an honory Nana to another baby girl called Kaira (pronounced Kiyra)  I made her a bunch of stuff that I posted about here.  I am seeing her again at the end of the month and as I am sewing for our grandson-to-be, I figured I would run up a couple of things for her.  Basically use Kaira as the guinea pig for new patterns.  

So I decided to sew up a baby ball using some scraps of fabric I had laying around.  I used the instructions from here and the template for the ball from here.

As this was the first time I had made this ball, I wanted to use fabric that wasn't the best, but was pretty to make sure I was happy with the pattern.

Now I wanted to put a "shaker/noise maker" in the middle of the ball, so I asked dd if she had any plastic centre's from Kinder Eggs laying around.  That is what the yellow plastic things are on the bottom left of the photo.  Above that is some rice, which I put inside the yellow plastic thing.  So if by some reason it breaks open, then all it is, is rice and won't do any damage.  You could put a bell in there, some lentils, dried peas, anything that makes a noise.  I used the smallest sized from the template for my ball.

 After I cut out the fabric I pinned them together in two groups of three, making sure I was happy with the arrangement.  I them sewed the two groups of three together, then joined the two groups of three together.  On the last side to be sewn, remember to leave a gap, so you can turn it right side out and stuff it with toy stuffing.

Also, if you are using a shaker in the middle of the toy, remember to leave a big enough gap so you can put the shaker inside of it; otherwise you have to rip out part of your newly sewn seam........yes I left too small a gap.

 Stuff it with toy stuffing, add your shaker (if using) around half way through and finish off stuffing.  Hand sew the seam up, and voila you are done.

There is a 1/4 inch seam allowance on the pattern, which I didn't follow, therefore the top points of the ball don't completely match up.............bad me!!  Overall I am very happy with the out come and I can see lots of baby balls in the future.  Now I have to ask dd to hunt around for more Kinder Egg plastic things!!

On a side note, if you're wondering why I didn't use the same material that I used for Kaira's original gifts, it's because the pattern on the original material was too big and wouldn't have looked right.  Smaller patterns I find are more pleasing to the eye.  I will post a photo of me and Kaira when I give her the ball.