Pandemic Puzzle Ball

This Pandemic Puzzle Ball project was inspired by numerous YouTube videos of something called a Montessori Ball or an Amish Ball. I don’t actually know where it originated — suffice to say it’s not my creation — but once I saw it, I knew I had to come up with my own version. Given that this occurred in March of 2020, this was one of my pandemic projects, hence its name.

Most iterations of this project feature the ball entirely sewn up. I saw a few that showed how to make it out of three interconnected “rings” so that you can take it apart like a puzzle. That’s the one that I give instructions for in this PDF.

Then it occurred to me that — as an homage to the Rubik’s Cube of my youth — I could make a version that “solves” into the same fabric or colour at each triangular intersection. Instructions on how to allocate fabric to achieve this unique design are also provided.

Supplies required: 6 circles and 12 petal shaped pieces of cotton fabric (per supplied templates); sufficient polyfil to stuff the resulting 12 "pillows". Note that to make the solvable puzzle version, you'll need five different fabrics.