Sew a Stuffed Football

I will give Hubby the credit for this project. It was all his idea and I used him as a judge on how authentic it looked. The stuffed football sounded really easy, but it turned out to be a bit of a pain. I spent 4 hours on a Sunday trying to create a pattern that would work and I got so frustrated that I gave up and then had nightmares about it that night. But the next day I was able to perfect my design and come up with the awesome football you see here!

I started out by printing this template below. It can be resized depending on how large you want the football to be.

Trace and cut out three pieces of fabric.

Pin two pieces with right sides together. Sew only ONE side of the oval together. Then add the third piece and sew only one side to the two already attached.

On one of the seams, I measured 8 points where the lacing will go and I marked all the holes with pins.

To make the holes, I used an eyelet stitch on my machine. I added 8 holes on each side of the seam which is 16 eyelets total.

Using a small scissors, I punched a hole in each eyelet.

To make this step much easier, use a shoelace to lace the football. Tie a knot at one end.

Then loosely lace through all the holes and tie a knot at the other end.

Once the lacing is done, the football can be closed. Attach the two ends of fabric with right sides together. Sew it closed and leave a few inches open in the middle so you can turn the fabric right-side out.

Stuff the football and hand sew the opening closed.

Football fun!
Mine is about the actual size of a football so we can actually throw it around!

Linking to all these fun parties!