I am an idea thief. It's true. I have a real internet-stalker, etsy-peruser, creative-property theft issue. So when I saw this idea on etsy by nursejeanneg and then just a day later my friend Anna Reid needed an idea for a wedding gift - I was sold. I had to do it right then. Especially since Mount Saint Laundry was piling up in my bedroom waiting for me to fold it, and I was for sure trying to avoid that. Do you ever do that? Look on the internet and think "I can totally make that" and then think "and I have to do that right this second so I can avoid dealing with this gross pot of old hamburger grease that's been sitting on the counter for two days"? No? Just me? Oh, ok. Well I do, and I did, and here's what I got.
A super cool, stuffed burlap football, door-hanger, decorated with a Mississippi State pawprint. Go dawgs!!
First thing you do is to go to the store with your pregnant friend and spend too much money on all kinds of junkola because you are in a crafting kind of mood. Then make your pregnant friend draw and cut out the football shape from the burlap (whatever size you would like I assume) because you are busy cooking dinner for a load of college kids. Our footballs are three layers of burlap each because we wanted the front to be good and thick, but I'm not sure it's necessary. Then we painted our desired stuff on our footballs. We pinned the top two layers and painted those because it bled through and we didn't want it on the back. (btw, don't be a ding-dong. put a garbage bag or something down under your project.) You could paint on just the top one I assume. I don't know why we do what we do. We're bizzare. She was making a wedding gift for an Alabama fan here in this pic. She also finally took a decent picture in which she wasn't talking and making a completely weirdo face. Good job A.R.
After you paint your desired whatever and it dries (for several hours is best) sew the three layers together like you would if you were making a pillow case except we both chose to just sew about an inch in a leave a raw edge. However, you do need to leave a hole for stuffing like you would with a pillow. A.R. found that her's didn't hold so well so she sewed a ribbon inside of her seam. I, on the other hand, felt like mine held pretty well (I don't know if it had to do with stitch width, length, etc.) but I did take a extra measure that I will show you in a second.
Next thing I did was to let a small ball of adorable destruction make a weird face and shove bunched up plastic bags into the open hole between the second and third layers. Make sure to evenly distribute them and get it however stuffed you want. I will say that the person selling them on etsy says she stuffs hers with brown paper. I'm sure that is a good option too, but I want to hang mine on my back door and don't want moisture to make the paper get all grody. Plus I go to Walmart pretty much daily so I had about 7,483,295 plastic shopping bags at my disposal.
I had a few spots when I was sewing around that had too much paint to really sew through, so I went back to those spots and just hot glued them together. I holds really well, just be careful not to do so much that it comes through the fabric and looks ugly. You could probably do a small bead all the way around the seam of the whole thing if you are worried about your stitches holding. Just a note of caution - do not squirt burning hot glue into holey fabric and immediately squish it together with your fingers unless you don't mind needing skin grafts on all your fingetips in the near future. Don't ask me how I know this.
Next step is to just take some heavier guage wire that you have laying around the house (they sell it at any craft or home improvement store) and literally just poke it through all the layers of fabric from the back side. You need to make sure you are down a few inches from the seam (towards the stuffing) so the wire won't be pulling on the seam or loose fabric. Now this is really simple but I didn't take a picture of this exact step so follow me. When you poke a couple of inches of wire through on both sides, you need to bend the ends and the long loop piece on the back so that they are pinched together and both pointing upward. You will understand what I mean if you are doing it. You want the loop in the back to be able to hang the football and you want the front pieces to be pointing straight up so that they hold the ball on the wire. Next use a pair of needle nose pliers and your fingers to bend your front wire into swirlies or some other cute shape that won't stab you as you walk by. The last thing I did before hanging it up was to use a bunch of different kinds of ribbon and make a bow on one side of the hanging wire. I forgot to take a picture of this because I was talking too much. (imaging that)
Anyhows....this is what I got. A.R.'s ended up very cute too with an Alabama A on it but she was already gone to the wedding and I didn't get a picture of it. I will say that our's are a little large in width so it took a lot of stuffing which makes it a really big door hanger, but I love it! Just keep that in mind if you make one. Also remember, once you stuff it and hang it and take a picture of it and post it on the internet it will look a little wonky in 2-D, but in real life it will be super cute and all your friends will be jealous. (ok not really but you can tell yourself that part to make yourself feel good). The painting part is a little time consuming, but otherwise this is a totally easy project that I forsee myself reapeating again soon. The possibilities are endless - witches hats, Chrismas trees, basketballs, pumpkins, ornaments, turkeys, oh my! So let your imagination run wild and get to the fabric store right this second. I'm sure you have tons of housework you are looking to avoid! No? Really just me huh?
Love you like a lazy Saturday,
Cassie
Love you like a lazy Saturday,
Cassie
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