Floor Pouf--Anmial Ball From Max and Meena

Welcome to the Spring Fling Blog Hop! 

  Sew Much Charm kicked off the Spring Fling with the  Spring Fling Giveaway!  A huge congratulations to the winners: Lorna P. of England & Patti V. of Texas!  Each prize package had a retail value of $191!

Let's keep the fun rolling this week with more sewing and more fun.  Sew Much Charm is now also hosting the Spring Fling Blog Hop and I'm going to introduce to you our Bloggers for the Blog Hop!

Be sure to check each day by 6AM (Central Standard Time)!  Each day there will be a blogger (or more) doing a giveaway!  So be sure to check each blog post & just comment on their blog post from this blog hop and you are entered to win! You will have until Friday at midnight (Central Standard Time) to comment away on each blog post for a chance to win! 

Monday - Sew Much Charm & Vlogger Sewing From Scratch
Tuesday -  TPtheModestDoll22 & That's Sew Venice
Wednesday -  SewGr8ful & Sequoia Lynn Sews
Thursday -  Let's Go Hobby! & The Sarcastic Sewist
Friday -  The Bear & the Pea Atelier & Wildflowers & Whimsey    

YaY it's Tuesday, that means it's my day, welcome everyone, I hope you enjoyed yesterdays posts.  My item is not super springy per say, but it was a fun project to work with my daughter on while we're all home.  Let me now present the Stuffed Animal Ball, by Max & Meena.   Make sure to comment below for a chance to win your own free copy!!!

My daughter has been wanting one of these for a while now.  Why is it called the animal ball?   That's because you use it to store your stuffed animals.  The side zipper makes it easy to get them in and out and keeps them nice and tidy while providing a comfortable place to sit.

I bought the pattern Animal Ball, floor pouf from Max & Meena, and have been waiting to have enough time.  Well, guess what???? I have the time.  I didn't get a chance to go buy any fabric specifically for this, and she does recommend a heavier weight then I had on hand.  So because of this, I made a few additions to my project to help reinforce it.


I hope it'll hold up to the 'love' I know this is going to be getting.  And Gizmo heard 'animal ball' and is trying to convince her it's his!  She was smart and put it in her room. 




This is a very simple pattern to put together.  Just make sure to prep your fabric first and get everything cut out.  We chose this super soft flannel and a pink zipper.

Like I said this pattern goes together easily.  If you are a bit hesitant about the curves you can easily put a few notches on the pattern yourself, and transfer to each piece to make it faster to line up, or just a mark at the fold, so you know where the center is.




When attaching the zipper I found the center of all three pieces, and then made sure it all lined up.












 Then just sew the sides up, and follow the instructions.  I chose to use a 1/2" seam allowance instead of the 1/4", because I know how badly this fabric frays and I wanted to give it a bit more stability in my seams.  I also serged the seams as well, to combat the fraying.

I pulled the fabric taut and topstitched down each side of the zipper so we shouldn't have to worry about any fabric getting caught in the zipper later.  Kids can be pretty rough on zippers.



Another tip I have is if you're using directional fabric put a clip a the top of each piece after you cut it, so that when you're attaching the sides you don't forget and sew one upside down (don't ask).

To further reinforce these seams that will have a lot of force on them I decided to top stitch each seam down, make sure to do this before you attach your final sections together to make it easier.  As I said it's totally optional, but I'd rather reinforce it now then have to go in and make repairs later.  I ended up doing two rows of top stitching on each seam, and around the top and bottom center sections. 





It was nice to share my sewing with my daughter and had her sew up a few of the seams as well, she's still terrified of the serger though. She enjoyed the ironing and thought it was satisfying to see it smooth out.  Home Ec at it's finest.

Now about the size.  This is pretty big!!! hahahaa  I am so glad used the small size.  I can't even imagine how big the other sizes are, definitely would work for an adult.  I didn't see any actual finished measurements online, but noticed in the group how big most of them were.  So I have stuffed it and we've sat in it, and I'll give you the basics on the size small.    If you want it even smaller you can increase the seam allowance, or print the pattern off at say 90% or something. 



It's a perfect size for your average pug or 10 year old though :D

Leave a note in the comments with more ideas of what you could store in your Stuffed Animal Ball, or what you'd use it for, and you'll be entered to win your own copy!!!!!

 https://maxandmeena.com/products/stuffed-animal-ball-pdf-sewing-pattern,


Other things you could fill it with to use for storage ideas:

Winter clothing, snow pants, jackets, mitts
Summer beach towels
Extra linens
Holiday linens 
Fabric scraps
Baby clothes you just can't part with.

                             And the winner is Julie BEE!!! 

Balsam Bag -- Upcycled leather bag

From Couch to Bag

Balsam Bag-- Sofiona Designs
Upcycled Leather Bag 

Several years ago we needed to get rid of our old leather couch.  So when we did, my husband cut off all the usable leather, the back was in great shape and the cushions were ok too, just the frame was shot.  I kept the leather hoping to do something with it.  I have NEVER sewn with leather before and know there is a learning curve.  When I saw this bag being tested I realized it was simple enough to give it a go.





I made a smaller angled bag in woven for my daughter to try the pattern and get a feel for it, and then I really wanted to make myself a lovely leather fall bag.  I knew I'd found the right pattern to finally try it out.

I pulled out the two couch cushions and laid them out.  One is a bit more wrinkled than the other but I think it adds character.  I was able to get the straps out of the fabric around the edge, it does have a couple of seams but it still worked out fine.

My rotary cutter worked great on the leather so that was a good start.  I got a heavy-duty needle, I used a topstitching one because I didn't have a leather one on hand, and it worked great. Although I will be getting some leather ones as well.   I also used my Teflon foot to help things slide better, and lowered my presser foot pressure.  I also discovered my machine does a better topstitch in the left-hand needle position.  It tended to skip in positions farther to the right, I usually pop my needle over when I topstitch on the right-hand side, but had to adjust that.

I added the rivets to the pocket because I thought they were cute.  The rivets to the straps were necessary because my rings were quite thick, and I love the look of rivets.  I bought them a while ago so it's fun to have an excuse to use them.  I bought my rivets from Tandy Leather, and now I'm eyeing those pyramid ones!!!!

My only issue came with the straps.  Keep in mind leather and vinyl come in different thicknesses, and the leather I was using was from my couch.  When I tried folding the straps like the pattern recommends it was just way to thick for the slider I had on hand.  I'm not sure if there are other sliders that would have worked better, but I was upcycling off an old strap, so it was what I had on hand.  Here's how bulky my strap ended up being.   Topstitching it would have helped some, but I didn't want to punch holes in it and have it not work.  So I decided to try a different method and I think it worked beautifully.


This is the blog post I followed for my NEW strap.  "How to make (less Bulky) Leather bag straps."  Yes, that is the title of the post, perfect right?? ahaha.  You can see here the difference it made.  Some people don't like the raw edge showing, but I found it lined up so well on the strap, and only on the tabs is it showing, and I kind of like the look, so it's really personal preference.  This was just a practice one, on my real strap I lined up the ends and it looks really nice.  I just wanted to see if this was going to work, and you can see how much thinner it is.

So What I did was cut my strap at 2" so I'd have a 1" finished strap to fit my hardware.  I drew a line right down the center, to fold the straps in half evenly.   Since the raw edge is going to show, make sure you don't have any snags in the leather, I used the rotary cutter, and it left it nice and clean.

 I made the happy discovery that a glue stick works great to hold the strap down.  It was much easier and faster than using a ton of clips.  I only put clips on the seams and in a few places just to make sure I didn't have any surprises when I started sewing.

The next step was to sew down those center pieces.  I sewed from the wrong side, being careful to make a nice straight line by lining up with the edge of the strap.  I sewed each side down, then flipped it over and topstitched along the edges.  This made a super flat and sturdy strap.

I love how well the straps slide through the rings and sliders.  I did the connector straps the same way in the bag.  I used rivets on them to hold them on.

I have to say I'm super pleased with my first ever leather bag. The pattern is great and has several options.  I'm excited to share this pattern with others because I know how intimidating making a bag or purse can be.  But it's really quite simple, and the pattern is well written and easy to follow.

This is the large fold-over bag option, on the Balsam Pattern.

I still can't belive I managed to make a leather bag, and strap for less than $10, by using my old couch, and reusing the hardware from a purse strap.









The Handmade bag bling I got from Emmaline Bags.   And she really has an amazing selection of hardware for bags.  They add so much, and make the finished product look more professional, and one of a kind.











 If the cost of hardware is making you hesitate, keep in mind you can always upcycle items from other bags, like straps and snaps.  And if you don't want to make an adjustable strap you can just make a regular length one, and use key rings for your loops on the ends :D.   Remember a pattern is like a recipe, it's ok to change a few things here and there to match what you have on hand, your budget or personal preferences.  For more cost-saving tips check out more info on my daughter's Bag.  Balsam Bag--Bag on a Budget




So now you have no excuse to not give this great pattern a try.  Head on over to Sofiona Designs Fan Group, to see more examples and inspiration.  Click this link here to buy the pattern  Sofiona Designs.