the demesticating of and man,and... look at my balls

just as a side note. I have been trying to be more crafty as of late. To help around the house, I decided to by Karen a sewing patter for chair covers. We have to old tapestry covered chairs that our cats (both with claws) love. so we are covering them.
Apparently, even though Karen really liked the patter, she did not have enough time to actually make the covers, with her 100 hour work week and all (insert sarcasm light). So, I decided to give it a try.
This is my first time using a sewing machine, or looking at patterns, or doing anything like this, and I must it turned out really good. take note of the pleats on the back corners, the curved back, and the level lower hem. also the eyelets on the back need to have a cable sewn to tie it shut, i have been to distracted with my balls to start that task, but more on that after the pics.





now on to my balls.
after i discovered how "easy" it was to use the sewing machine, i thought i would be more crafty and try to make an article of clothing. In order to do so, i figured i needed a simple pattern, or maybe a book of simple patterns, thus initiated my trip to half price book store. While searching the craft aisle i did see many interesting, simple, sewing books, but then i was distracted by a book on Temari, or Japanese thread balls. they are comprised of a Styrofoam ball covered with batting covered with yarn covered with thread, then covered with intricate geometric patterns in silky thread. I have made three so far. the red, blue, tan one was my first. It is a "training" ball and was made of stuff i had on hand so it is not the best color combination. the second one is the pink, purple and green one. again made with materials on hand. At this point I realized that I was using the wrong stitching threads. The last one is the yellow one on top. It is the closest to correct that i have gotten. I still had a few problems with it, I used the wrong yarn and it lead to a lumpy ball :(
here are the pics.