Kari Ann's Inside Snowballs!

Inside snowballs surrounding my snow domes!  

We use the inside snowballs in story time with all the winter themes, even the parents have fun!  My colleague, Kari Ann at My Storytime Life , taught me about inside snowballs this year and I can not thank her enough.  These are the only snowballs we've had in Connecticut this winter.  Kari Ann also introduced me to the song: Freeze on Carole Peterson's Dancing Feet.  Available on iTunes.

I am including my first tutorial below.  Things you will need:  

I purchase polyester tulle, I like the pale pink sparkly tulle best!  I also use pale blue.

I buy the tulle by the yard and fold the 54" wide in half

then cut into 7" strips with sharp scissors

I suggest a long tapestry needle

thread, doubled

With my thread doubled and knotted I start by securing the initial stitch, doing it twice, and then start basting right up the middle of the tulle 

I generally don't gather until the end, but I want you to see what is happening.  When I tug a little on the thread it pulls the tulle together ~ we are making a snowball!

When I get to the end of the strip I gather the entire snowball in tight.  I stitch through the middle a few times, (the long tapestry needle will be very helpful here), and then circle my thread around the middle to tighten even more and stitch through a couple more times.  I then push my needle through just a few layers a couple of times and knot my thread and snip.  I will trim the snowball ends at this point if they aren't straight enough for me.  

Then... just fluff and throw!!!  But of course you'll need about 50 of these for a good indoor snowball fight ~ have fun.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!