Wool Hand Balls, 1860

Wool or leather hand ball from The Girl's Own Toy-Maker (1860).

I meant to make these for Fort Steilacoom Christmas last year (not to mention playing "The Elements" at Nisqually). I'm finishing them now in honor of Candlelight Tours, which should have been this weekend, and always have a group of talented volunteers reenacting "children at play" in the nursery.

These should work fairly well for "The Elements".

The construction was quite simple and went quickly:

1. Cut out ~6 eye-shaped pieces of fabric.
2. Stich right-sides together, leaving a small gap in the last seam.
3. Stuff with bran (I used bits of wool roving and scrap yarn for some).
4. Stitch the gap closed from the right side.

The instructions don't actually say how many pieces to use per ball: the illustration shows 14-16 narrow sections, while the pattern given makes a roughly spherical ball in six pieces. I cut pieces about 4" tall and just over 1.5" wide (including seam allowances of ~1/4"), which gave a finished ball 2.5" across.

The resulting balls are a little squat, and I think they might be improved by cutting each wedge slightly narrower and using 8 of them instead of 6. The bran filled ball has a slight weight to it; it's easy to toss, but packs a slight punch if you try to throw it really hard. The wool-stuffed balls are very light, and even my hardest attempt to pitch them doesn't produce much of an effect.