Sgamiballs -- Sewn Juggling Ball Tutorial 

Yes me too.

wvb93 I tried tennis balls filled with 100 pennies in each ball. Good exercise, but very heavy. Canvas and BBs might make an interesting combination. They'd have the weight, but would flatten in the hand nicely. I personally didn't like the canvas/polyfill combo (the fabric was too stiff for the filling, making it fall out of the hand too easily), but canvas/BB might be just right.

Yeah, my version is definitely much sloppier than hand-sewing and fully stuffing the balls would be. For numbers juggling, you'd want then to be as precise as possible. I have used my version, based on your technique, to let international college students make their own juggling balls that they can take home with them. Both the more basic sewing technique and the resulting basic balls are good for beginners. I still think this is an ingenious synthesis of juggling and origami, two of your passions. As a fellow multipotentialite with many interests, I salute you!

Great! Glad this works for you. I still use these juggling balls regularly.

Jeremy Schafer does the entire thing by hand as well. I'm just too lazy for that. I like the cup template idea. As long as you get the appropriate sized cup, you'll get equally sized balls at the end!

srwilks You're not interested in sewing your own juggling balls? But . . . Nah, it's all good. My interests are pretty eclectic, so I'd be surprised if someone was interested in everything I do.

I've made juggling balls as an activity with my international college students. We provide the fabric, the templates, and the filling--they provide the manual labor. Then at the end, we teach them how to juggle. The instructions are out there; if anyone wants to us them to make a bunch, they're welcome to it.

@@PacoWarabi I was hoping when I got up on that mountain which has been halted for the moment lettuce lack of. We're going through a lot that cost more than we have and it's stopping us from getting up on that mountain and you know that that was my place I wanted to go live and then when it's time to die. It's absolutely Breaking My Heart. I thought we would be there in a few months it looks like we're going to be homeless before we get up there. Unfortunately there is lack of telling me to keep me I'm freaking out but what was worse telling me a little bit at a timer finding out all in one big pile? Well the second one I can tell you I should have been told about every little thing. But we were going through violence at the same time so it's really hard to hit people with bad news when they've just had their front door bashed in 5 times police did nothing. O they went and visited with her? Them I guess I should say there was help. I'm living in a scary world and people wonder how I can go live at my age on top of a mountain and a gorgeous house that doesn't have enough to keep you alive yet but I thought that was happening. Plan Z maybe we're only at Q. Thank you Paco just thinking of sewing when I get up there cuz I'll have my sewing machine out of storage for the first time it's never even been used it sounds like there's no market for juggling balls

@@gomezaddams6470 There might be a market for them at a Saturday Market. Handmade juggling balls? Especially if it came with a little brochure on how to juggle? Yes please! Hang in there, okay?

I don't have a scale that accurate, but I would say they are in line with mass-produced cloth juggling balls.

If I can get my college students to make these, surely you can do them as well!

These are much better than socks! I've used professional juggling balls before, and I haven't really been tempted to go out and buy any after using these. Keep up the juggling. I've been doing it for over 20 years, and I come back to it again and again.

I guess I didn't include the instruction to knot the end of the thread. Do a quick search for "knot thread on needle" for instructions on how to do this.

I've discovered that my favorite is basic quilting cotton. It comes in plenty of colors, it doesn't get dirty very quickly, it has the right amount of give, and it's easily washable. The red fireball juggling balls are the ones I carry with me everywhere, from LA to Brazil, and have been in all 150 videos on my juggling channel. They're still holding up great.

Sorry, I couldn't tell you exactly. I just measured one of them, and it was maybe closer to 2.75 diameter, but it was also not very full. You might want to try 3/4 size of my design. Let me know how it works out. I've always preferred a more squishy beanbag, so that's what I designed around. I can see the value in a different style though!

@@PacoWarabi I've made 5 so far out of 3 materials, 3 different sizes. First I used your stencil template with some faux leather. But it was too thick and clunky. I switched to a fleece material and shrunk the stencil a tiny bit, and it worked so much better!! I made 1 with a sewing machine and 1 by hand. The one by hand turned out better, but it takes longer. It's about 2.5 inch diameter, 75g. It is a bit on the lighter side but I decided I like it and it has a bit of give which is going to be nice for numbers. I'll use my 140g sportco bags for 5 balls and short runs of 6 and 7, but I'll definitely be making a set of 10 of these for fun numbers stuff. Thanks for the help! Here's a pic of the final 2 so far cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/429865898854055940/626830134187524096/CAM01472.jpg The one on the left is a bit smaller and done with a machine, the one on the right is the one I'm happy with (75g by hand). Just need to make more!

When you go to the printer settings, try to make sure it says, "print at full size," or "print at 100% scale" or something like that. I've had the same problems occasionally, but that seems to do the trick.

I have lots of sizes here: tinyurl.com/rmzupmu

Crafty Cat Since the pattern is traced onto a flat square piece of fabric, you could sew 2, 3, or more pieces together and then cut the square out of that. Quilted juggling balls, anyone?

I just looked up the conversion (sorry, stupid American here. I'm not as familiar with the metric system). 8 tablespoons per ball = 113.4 grams. Round up or down depending on whether you'd like slightly heavier/bigger or lighter/smaller.

I haven't. I prefer the 1 panel version.

I tried many varieties of fabric, but after making 20+ sets, my favorite is plain old quilting cotton. It's the most universal, comes in millions of colors and patterns, are easy to juggle, and seems to hold up the best. I have a set that has traveled around the world with me and are still going strong after two years. I do have a set of juggling balls made of ripstop nylon that live in my car for outdoor activities, but the cotton is still my favorite.

Sure, at the low low cost of $100 per ball! And take it from me -- they're totally not worth it. I wouldn't buy them at that price. You're much better off finding someone locally and show them this video. I've shown dozens of international students how to do this, and it's pretty straightforward.

Good question. Short answer is, I don't know. Here's my guess. If you look at the pattern, it is made up of four lenses (that's the geometric term for an oval with pointy ends, according to Google). If you cut each lens in half the short way (cut through the curve, not through the point), you would end up with eight almost triangles (they would have two rounded sides each, but you could straighten them out, or leave them curved for a more round end product). Sew four of those triangles together to get half of a sphere, and then sew sew those to the other four triangles to get a ball shape. Of course, you don't actually have to start with my pattern. You could just start with eight equilateral triangles. See an eight-sided die for the general idea. Now, I'm just speculating while manipulating a 3-dimensional object in my head. This may or may not work. I would have to experiment in real life to try it. Or better yet, you could try it and post a video with the results. I would love to see how it turns out!

To get a good triangular stencil/pattern print the gamiball pattern tinyurl.com/rmzupmu and cut out one of the leaves and fold it in half and draw along the crease. If you cut along that line you will end up with two triangular panels each with two curvy sides and 1 straight side. What you want is 3 curvy sides! To get that 3rd side curvy instead of straight you can transfer the curve from another cut-out leaf by superimposing it onto the straight edge and tracing along the curve. Once you have a 3-curvy-edge triangle, paste it onto cereal box cardboard, and, using a razor, carefully cut out the triangle. You can use the triangle as a stencil, but for more efficiency I'd recommend cutting lots of triangles out of the the cardboard. Make sure to leave a border so that the when you cut the triangles out of the material you won't be sewing on the edge of the material. Do like the bees and arrange the triangles most efficiently - they use hexagons but if you cut each hexagon from the honeycomb into 6 triangles then you have the most efficient triangular tessellation... but, again, you need to leave a border for sewing. With al that said, I prefer the simplicity of sewing one square of cloth rather than juggling 8 triangles of cloth! Mine are plenty round since I use velour which is slightly elastic.

Yeah, that was three years ago, and believe me, plenty of people chewed me out for sewing machine abuse. Fortunately it has been oiled since then.

PacoWarabi that’s good. Lol I’m glad your machine is happy now. I’m going to make some of juggling balls. Much better than a fidget spinner. 😂

Rice definitely works as well, and is much cheaper and more readily available. With the plastic beads, you can wash them when they get dirty, but as long as you keep them dry, rice is fine.

Yeah, I enjoy sewing, but not the maintenance. It's better now. Thanks for the concern :-)