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This article was co-authored by Lois Wade. Lois Wade has 45 years of experience in crafts including sewing, crochet, needlepoint, cross-stitch, drawing, and paper crafts. She has been contributing to craft articles on wikiHow since 2007.
This article has been viewed 141,155 times.
Temari balls are a traditional Japanese toy/decoration given for good luck in the new year. You can make your own in approximately 20 minutes with simple materials.
Steps
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1Obtain the things you'll need.
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2Cut your styrofoam ball in half and cut a small hollow in the center.Advertisement
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3Place a small jingle bell or noisy object in the center and place the two halves together again with the jingle bell inside.
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4Cut two rectangles from your batting or old blanket. They should wrap 3/4ths of the way around the balls circumference lengthwise and be at least half the ball circumference in width.
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5Wrap the rectangle around the styrofoam ball.
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6Pin the two rectangles to your styrofoam ball. Place the short end of one against the middle of the longer side of the other.
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7Wrap them around and place pins to hold them in place.
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8Cut off any excess material, leaving two "dumbbell" shaped pieces of batting pinned to the ball.
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9Begin to wrap your base color of string.
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10Remove the pins as soon as the string is sufficiently wrapped to make the pins unnecessary.
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11Continue to wrap your base color randomly around your styrofoam ball until all of your batting is covered.
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12Cut the string, thread it's end through a large needle, and sew it into the ball to hold it in place.
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13Mark the poles and equator of your string ball with pins.
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14Wrap and/or embroider the ball in contrasting colors in any pattern of your choice. The example was made extremely simple for ease of explanation, but there are many more complicated and interesting designs "out there". (see citations below)
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15Sew all ends into the ball to secure them.
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16Use the ball as a decoration, as a gift, or as a child's toy.
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Community Q&A
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QuestionWhy the noisemaker inside?T. ChinsenTop AnswererTraditional temari balls do not have any noisemakers in the center. It is a modern addition to add play value to the ball.
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Warnings
- Use appropriate care with any edged tools.⧼thumbs_response⧽
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Things You'll Need
- Styrofoam ball (tightly wadded paper, dryer lint, or old socks can be substituted)
- Straight pins
- Several rolls of cotton or poly sewing thread
- Embroidery floss (#5 Perle cotton is common)
- Fine weight yarn
- A needle with a large eye
- Scissors
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