Rag balls are an easy July 4th accent.

This heritage craft pays tribute to the hard work and sacrifices of those who first settled our country.   Nothing went to waste in the early days, and women saved every scrap of fabric, winding the scraps into fabric rag balls for later use.  Wrapped in red, white and blue fabrics, and all-American denim, our rag balls add a sense of history to July 4^th décor.

Fast forward to 2011, and we’ve created a version that’s seriously easy to make – it took less than an hour to turn out half a dozen rag balls.  It’s a very forgiving process, too, and any imperfections just add to the charm.  You can purchase new fabrics, or channel your inner pioneer and use leftover fabric scraps or repurpose old clothing to make these decorative spheres.

This is a great project for the kids, too, and who knows, maybe you can even slip in a little history lesson.

Here’s what you need to make Patriotic Rag Balls:

• STYROFOAM Brand Foam: 4” ball (or size of your choice)
• Fabrics: assorted colors and patterns (new, leftover or repurposed)
• Tools: Cutting mat and rotary cutter OR scissors; straight pins; low temperature glue gun & glue sticks OR thick white craft glue

To make Patriotic Rag Balls:

1. Roll foam ball on a hard surface, gently compressing it so that it’s slightly uneven in places.  (This step is optional.  When making rag balls, I prefer an imperfect sphere, which is achieved by slightly rolling and compressing the ball.  If you’d rather have a perfectly round sphere, that’s o.k., too, and you can skip this step.)

3. Place a dab of glue on end of a fabric strip, adhere to the ball and start wrapping.  When done, glue remaining end to ball.  Repeat, adding more fabric strips till the ball is covered.  If using white craft glue, use pins to hold
strips in place till glue dries.  Once glue dries, you can remove any pins that are visible.

Super easy!

We’ll have more patriotic crafts next week, and don’t forget to check out our new Summer Craft Boredom Buster on Wednesdays.  This week, our Boredome Buster kid’s craft includes a giveaway for a Solar System craft kit!  Check it out, leave a comment, and you might win the Solar System craft kit.  You can also enter our giveaway by posting a photo of your summertime craft project on our Facebook page.

Till next week.  Happy crafting!

Sharon