These patriotic decor filler balls are the perfect addition to any red, white and blue decor. They are not only easy, but inexpensive too. While I tend to do less decorating during the summer months, I do love to acknowledge the patriotic summertime holidays like Memorial Day and the 4th of July.
The desire to find an inexpensive and quick patriotic decor DIY is what inspired me to create these patriotic decor filler balls!
How to Make Patriotic Decor Filler Balls
While in the dollar store brainstorming about what I could use as the base of this craft, I happened upon the plastic toy baseballs that come three to a pack. My first thought had been to use styrofoam balls, but that was even too costly for me!
Armed with my supplies, I set about making several of the patriotic decor filler balls. I decided to use fabric for most of them, but also purchased ribbon for some. I used the same patriotic fabrics for my scrappy flip flops. Here are the simple supplies you will need for your own patriotic decor filler balls:
- plastic baseballs
(3/$1 at the dollar store) or 3″ styrofoam balls
- 2 or 3 different fabrics
and/or ribbon
- scissors
- glue gun
Instructions for making Patriotic Decor Filler Balls
Seriously! Could this little project be any easier?!?
The first thing you’ll want to do is cut your fabric into long strips. You can use scissors or a rotary cutter. I had just purchased a new double-sided cutting board, along with a rotary cutter
, and couldn’t wait to use them. I love the cutting board because it’s a cutting board on one side and a rectangular ironing board on the other! I was able to iron the fat quarter fabrics right on the spot without dragging out and setting up my ironing board. With the recent purchase of my embroidery machine
, I figure this gadget
will get LOTS of use!
One of the fabrics I chose is a chevron, so it was easy to just follow the points in the chevron print in order to cut a quick, straight line with the rotary cutter. The strips worked out to be about 3/4 to 7/8″ wide (2 centimeters). It was so much quicker than using scissors, or even tearing the fabric, since I could cut multiple layers at a time. The strips weren’t quite long enough to wrap several times around the balls, although you could certainly do that if you bought fabric by the yard instead of fat quarters.
I cut 8 strips at the measurement of the circumference of the balls plus 1/4″, or about 10″ strips. Starting each strip with a dot from my glue gun, I wrapped it around and secured with another dab of glue. I just kept wrapping strips until the balls were covered over by fabric, making sure to start and end each strip at the same spot (so as not to have joints on all sides of the ball).
This is such a cute and inexpensive project… just pennies each! Let’s add it up – .33 cents for each ball plus fabric. This is easily less than $1 per patriotic decor filler ball! Depending on the cost of your fabrics and/or ribbon (you could even use scraps already on hand), the cost could be less than 50 cents each! These are right up my alley for easy patriotic decor that I don’t have to sink a lot of cash into.
Using Patriotic Decor Filler Balls
Here they are in my grandmother’s biscuit dough bowl (boy, could she make a mean biscuit!). I watched her whip up many a batch of biscuit dough in this sweet bowl. She was quite famous for her melt-in-your-mouth biscuits!
And I love them in my mother’s footed milk glass bowl:
These Patriotic Decor Filler Balls turned out so cute! I’m going to enjoy decorating with them every patriotic holiday.
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And of course, this craft can be adapted to any colors for any occasion!
If you like this craft idea, you might also enjoy these other projects:
Seed Packet Summer Wreath
Scrappy Flip Flops
I hope you have a fabulous Independence Day!!
These Patriotic Decor Filler Balls are also shared at:
how many strips does it take to cover a ball? I am trying to figure out how much material of different colors I need to make for different seasons.
thanks! Linda
Hi Linda,
Thanks for reading! I said in the post that I used 8 strips. It could take less or more, depending on the width of each strip. Happy Crafting!!