In today’s tutorial, we’ll see how to sew a pentagon ball.
This ball is a little, fun project that I did because I needed some safe stuffing for my crochet pentagon ball.
Even though the pentagons that I used for my crochet ball are completely solid (see the crochet solid pentagons HERE), they are still made of double crochet stitches and treble crochets.
So, in order to avoid having the stuffing material come out through the stitches, I decided to make a fabric lining ball of the same exact size as my crochet ball.
This way, the stuffing stays inside thanks to the lining, and the ball is safe for children to play with!
The good thing is that you won’t need much fabric at all, and you could even use some scraps from previous projects!
You can use this tutorial to sew a pentagon ball of any size.
That’s why I won’t give you a specific pentagon pattern that you can print. Instead, I’ll be showing you how to draw your own pentagon sewing pattern.
Then, in the second part, we’ll see how to actually sew the ball.
Pin this tutorial for later by saving it to your best sewing board on Pinterest using this pin!
Sewing Pentagon Ball – Video Tutorial
Materials
- Fabric
- Thread
- Sewing Machine
- Compass, Ruler, Pencil, and Paper for drawing your pentagon pattern
- Stuffing
- Rattle Ball
Size
I made my pentagon ball in 2 sizes:
- Large Ball – using pentagons with a side of 3.35″ (8.5 cm) – Ball Size: 6.5″ (16.5 cm) in diameter
- Small Ball – using pentagons with a side of 2.75″ (7 cm) – Ball Size: 5.5″ (14 cm) in diameter
How to Draw a Pentagon Pattern for Sewing – Based on the length of the side
Step 1
- Draw a horizontal line of the same length as the side of your crochet pentagon plus 1″ (2.5 cm) for the seam allowance;
- Mark the beginning of the line as point A and the end as point B;
Step 2
- Point your compass on A and open it to somewhere between the center of the line AB and point B, and draw a half circle;
- Then, keeping the same aperture, point your compass on B, and draw another half circle;
- With a ruler, draw the perpendicular bisector to AB, which is the line that passes through the two points where the half circles cut each other;
- Mark as M the midpoint of AB where the perpendicular bisector cuts AB.
Step 3
- Draw a perpendicular line to AB passing through B. This line must be longer than AB;
Step 4
- With a compass aperture equal to AB, pointing in B, draw a circle;
- Call P the point where this circle cuts the perpendicular line to AB passing through B;
Step 5
- Point your compass on M, open it to the same length as MP, and draw a circle until it intersects the prolongation of AB on the side of B. Call this point Q;
Step 6
- With an aperture equal to AQ, point the compass on A and draw an arc (for future reference, this is arc 1) until it intersects the perpendicular bisector to AB, and call this point D;
- Keeping the compass open on AQ, point it on B and draw an arc (arc 2). This arc also has to cross the perpendicular bisector in D!
Step 7
- With a compass aperture equal to AB, from A, draw an arc that intersects arc 2 in a point called E, and from B, draw an arc that intersects arc 1 in a point called C.
Step 8
- Draw the pentagon by connecting points BC, CD, DE, and EA.
- Cut out your pentagon pattern.
How to Sew a Pentagon Ball – Step-by-Step Photo Tutorial
- Cut 12 pentagons out of your lining fabric. For this tutorial, I used 4 different fabrics and cut 3 pentagons for each.
- Divide the pentagons into two groups of 6, and arrange each group to form a sort of flower with one central pentagon and 5 pentagons all around its sides like petals (see photos 9 and 10).
Pay attention to arranging the pentagons of the same color as shown in the pictures so that they won’t touch each other in the finished ball.
RS facing, sew the base of the external pentagons to the central one as follows:
- Flip one petal over to the central pentagon and sew the bottom sides with a sewing allowance of 0.6″ (1.7 cm). Use the same sewing allowance at the start and end of joined sides (see dashed line in picture 11).
- Open up the two pentagons you just joined (photo 12), and sew all the remaining petals (photo 13).
- RS facing, join the adjacent sides of the petals (see the arrows in photo 13) using a sewing allowance of 0.6″ (1.7 cm).
To do so, fold the central pentagon in half (photo 14), and bring the two pentagons on top of each other. Then, sew.
When you’re done, for each group of 6 pentagons, you should have a sort of basket.
- Turn one of the baskets upside down (see the basket on the right in photo 15).
Assembly
- Place the basket with the RS facing out (the one on the right in photo 15) inside the other with the free corners of each basket corresponding to the joined sides of the petals (photo 16).
- Sew the sides of the pentagons that are indicated with the same letter in photo 16, but leave two sides open for turning the ball and stuffing.
- To sew the corresponding sides, twist the pentagons as shown in photo 17 until the two sides are aligned.
Stuffing & Finishing
- Once you’re done, turn the ball upside down through the opening you left.
- Stuff your ball and add a rattling ball inside.
- Finally, sew the last two sides together using an invisible seam.
YOUR Sew Pentagon Ball IS READY!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and I’d love to see your pentagon balls! Please, share a pic of your work on Facebook and Instagram using the hashtag #raffamusadesigns!
Get more inspiration with these lining tutorials…
