Constructing a simple leather Ball

Here I will explain how to easily build a simple leather ball filled with wool. Such balls were probably used in ancient ball games as Phaininda.

Material

Needed materials are

  • Four pieces of leather, about 10x30cm
  • Rests of wool
  • Thread and sewing kit

Cutting the leather

The first step is cutting the four pieces of leather in such a way, that you can sew them together to form a ball. I think the easiest way to do that is to build a template. To do that, you simply draw two overlapping circles on a cardboard and cut out the overlapping part.

Fig.1 Construction of the Template

Now you should have four identically shaped pieces of leather. As I constructed my ball, I used four different colours. This is just to give the ball a special touch.

Fig.2 The leather pieces

Sewing the leather

Now you only have to sew the edges of the leather pieces together. You have to stop when only a small piece at one corner is left open.

Fig.3 The open Hull

Padding

Finally the wool rests are stuffed into the ball until it is plump. Then you can sew the last part together. Now you have a simple ball ready for playing.

Fig.4 The finished ball