This month’s Aurifil Artisan challenge is English Paper Piecing (EPP). I love EPP, and I love fast EPP projects, which can be a bit of an oxymoron. So, when I was dreaming up what I wanted to do this month, I ultimately landed on a toy for Riley! This soft fabric ball is the perfect toy for a small dog or a child!
I don’t think this spoiled poodle honestly needs more toys, but I have such great joy when he gets excited and loves a toy that I have made for him, so I just couldn’t resist. Never having made a 3D ball before, I ended up buying this pattern on Etsy from Right Patterns. The bonus being that not only does the pattern show how to sew together all your pieces, but it also comes with foundation paper piecing patterns for all the letters of the alphabet. I originally was going to add in some letters, but in the end decided to stick with lots of fun, bright, fussy cut animals and shapes.
I made the pattern at 150% size, using 1.5″ hexagons and pentagon paper shapes. A huge thank you to Paper Pieces for providing these! I added in a squeaker on the inside to make it even more irresistible and stuffed it with soft polyfill stuffing.**
Since my ball used many different fabric colors, I decided to stitch them together using Aurifil #2600, Dove Grey in 50 weight. It was the perfect color to blend together without sticking out. The 50 weight is my favorite for EPP because it is thin enough to blend into the fabric but strong enough told everything together!
**Never leave your dog unattended with a toy, as they can poke a hole and eat the stuffing inside, which would be very bad.
And now, for the outtakes… these crack me up because they are so characteristically Riley (and poodles in general).
