Monkey Ball

This was going to be part of the aforementioned baby gift, until the bags turned out so awesome that the monkey ball just couldn't compete.  So the monkey ball became a give-away at the baby shower and went home with someone else to eventually appear in a little boy's Easter basket.  :)

Its a pattern from a book I have - Sewn By Hand by Susan Wasinger.  The photo of the balls in the book are cuter - they used vintage scraps in pale colors and the edges look more frayed/fluffy in the book photos than mine turned out to be.  One of those times where you try to adapt something to the scraps you have on hand and it just doesn't turn out quite the same.  Plus I whipped this out quick by machine and I think the charm from hand stitching really adds something.  Oh well... can't win them all.  I'll try it again sometime when I have more vintagey scraps hanging around, when I want a hand stitching project, and when I have time to tweak the pattern shape a bit as its ends up being an oval rather than a sphere.  Not sure how that happened but I think it would be better as a true ball.  I did stick a jingle bell in the middle so thats fun.