By the time I finished making these squishy velcro balls, I was really, really good at it ! It is good to learn to make things by hand. We can become used to short-cuts and I am here to tell you that I learned patience while making these. They are on the list of activities for our summer gathering but I wanted to tell you a little more about them.
The aprons were on a close-out table at JoAnn’s. They have three large pockets at the bottom where each person’s “throwy balls” will go. I bought kitchen towels at the dollar store which are microfiber. I cut each towel in half, turned under the edges and secured them to the aprons with embroidery floss in six places. I could have used the sewing machine but I wanted to do it quickly and easily.
Each person will have a different set of balls by color.
The balls were made by cutting a little sock in half and working with the toe part. The socks came from the dollar store and were three pair for $1 which means I made 6 balls for $1. Each set of stockings came with three colors hooked together. I filled them with rice, folded them over in a special way and sewed them closed with a needle and thread. I bought a large roll of Velcro at Michael’s using a 50% coupon and cut pieces to fit over the part of the ball where I had sewn it closed. The Velcro has a strong, sticky adhesive on it but I added a few globs of E6000 craft glue just to make sure it stayed attached during the wear and tear of the games.
I also wanted to have gloves to catch the balls. Maybe everyone doesn’t want to get hit in the chest with the cute, little things. So, I bought bumpy cosmetic gloves. At first I thought I would have to attach Velcro to the gloves until I actually touched Velcro to the gloves and found that I could hardly pull it off. That is when I knew that the little balls would attach themselves to the gloves without any Velcro.
I did see a cute idea for a microfiber cap but I didn’t quite know how any of us would feel about getting hit in the head with a rice ball. So. I called it a day.
I’ll share the rules when we are ready to play !