Make Your Own Hacky Sack or FootBag

I just got back into hacking sacking (or whatever the verb is) a few months ago. I wanted to make my own though so that when my old ones get worn out, I dont have to shell out $10 each time for a new one. Ill call this the "beta sack" if you will.

Included are photos and videos of the creation. (Very poor video becuase I have a hoorible camera.)

I beg you to leave some CC if you have any ideas on how to improve this.

Step 1: Materials

You will need:

-Sewing Needle

-Thread

-Scissors (damn I never speel that right)

-Material that you want to make the Hacky Sack out of. I used this felty thing I founf around my house. I suggest using scraps of leather or vynl. But if your like me, then you dont have Leather to spare.

-Rice

-Funnel

-Patience

Comments

[Harmon22]

I have never sewed but my mom can help. How should i cut the material so i can make the sack?

[hackeysackheadcase]

that is so cool but should it be full to the very top or have a little bit of empty space

[jlivingston3]

u fishing line as thread it better then needle thread

[Llama Nerds]

For all those looking for filler materials, I have several suggestions, and you can mix and match depending on how floppy/heavy you want it:
- BBs (copperhead or other brand) - Too many of these will make it really heavy and it will hurt whenever you kick it.
- Sand - Your material has to have a tight enough weave, and your stitching has to be tight enough to keep this from leaking out
- crushed walnut shell - This is what Klutz uses for filling their juggling bags. Slightly coarser than sand, but noticeably lighter
- small gravel - think fish tank liner.
- Small electronics screws - for those of you who are constantly disassembling electronics and trying to figure out what to do with all the screws, besides throw them away.

[LastMemory]

1: The correct term would be Shredding or Popping. Shredding is much more popular

2. Good Instructable. I'll be sure to try this some time. Anyone know where I could maybe get metal beads??

And for those who fail at sewing: You should Google (used as a verb here lol) Dragonfly Hacky Sacks. It will take you to a website that makes amazing footbags. The shipping is incredibly fast and most footbags are high quality from therr.

[Llama Nerds]

for metal "beads" you can try plain old copperhead (or other brand) BBs. You'll probably want to "cut" them with some other lighter material, because filling a hacky sack solely with BBs can hurt, even with shoes on.

[slider45]

Well if you didn't know you can use wood shine on leather. So use it and leave in a more damp such as your basement, garage, or carport for the rest of the day and it will be good as new.


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http://www.simplybeanbags.co.uk/

[ilpug]

im also making one of thse using old denim jeans material and sewing with fishing line. try to stich it up like a baseball.

[ilpug]

dont use rice. if it gets wet it will rot and get all mushy. cheap airsoft bbs make great filler. so does kitty litter.

[peapeam]

Hi,
For those of you who would like to sew, I would try to use polar fleece. It is a very forgiving fabric to hand sew, and the result is very nice. Haven't tried sewing any of these, but I have sewn other things from it, including small neck pillows with a rice filling, which is sort of similar to these (only a bit larger). The advantage with the polar fleece fabric is that it is real soft. If you want it to be real sturdy, you can run a flame real quickly along the edges of each piece before sewing, that seals off the edges by melting a bit, which makes the edges real strong. You can then also stitch real close to the edge without risking that the stitch may pull through. If you want the stitch to be real flat and the in- and outside to be the same, sew with a figure 8 stitch, go from the underside of one piece to the upside of the other etc. With many small such stitches, you get a virtually invisible join. If you sew in other ways, at least use the figure 8 stitching to close the filling hole so it won't show. :)

[amberella1964]

Hey to all you guys (n gals) making hacky sacs...and thank you for this instructionable. I have made plenty of crocheted ones but my son really wanted a leather one.
Someone asked what to fill them with, the problem with organics (rice/peas/lentils) is that once wet they become icky. I use something you can buy in the craft section at Walmart. They are little plastic pellets used in bean bags. I believe they are sold for that purpose. They are light but roll nicely. My son wants me to use sand or tiny pebbles, which can't be used in crocheted bags.
I am off to the beach for teeny pebbles tomorrow and will make a lovely leather footbag for my son.
:)

[gingy]

i think its hacky sacking i hacky sack quite a bit with my friends.

[Fonzz]

its hacking the preferred term is hacking, hacky sacking is just too much of a pain to say :D

[nightninja87]

i heard it was called shredding from somebody before?

[Dreistein]

hi tristanw my name in real life is tristan

[duhnali]

wicked cool. made a one with black/white alternating stripes, best damn hacky sack i ever did see.

[footbagboi]

this is a great instructable but if anyone wants to try more advanced patterns go on footbag.org/footbags/patterns. ive made all of the ones they have there and they all turn out really nice. also they last for a really long time. oh and one more thing, the verb is actually footbagging. but hacking is alright too

[koolkatinaredhat]

i actually bought juggling balls made out of leather for really cheap, filled them with sand, and the work great for stalling or just hitting around with your friends.

[thebboy]

how do you guys train yourselves to hacky sack? i have one and i cant figure it out at all

[Lazy Ape]

A good analogy would be bouncing a tennis ball off of a racket while you sit on the couch. if you do small bounces off of your foot over and over again, you'll know where it's gonna go as soon as it makes contact with your foot - and the arch of the movement will become second nature.

[thebboy]

oh, ok.

[MattandJora]

or just practice a lot

[thebboy]

ya, that works too. lol

[TheCheese9921]

i would recomend using lentil beans thats what I fill mine with and rice just behaves differently idk what I do is get the real cheap ones (the ones that are knitted or w/e) and empty out the plastic chunks they fill it with (damn cheap-o's) and fill it up to prefferance (I,ve gotten really good at this, due to the fact that my teachers' collections' of these seem to grow and grow)

[TristanW]

haha thanks cheese. My teachers take mine all the time also. Then like i said in the instuctable, i have to shell out 10 more dollars for a nice one. I like your idea. You should put up an instructable on it, show us how to do it easy. Also, can you describle lentil beans to me? Im not really sure what they are or how big they are. Eh, scratch that, ill search google.

[TheCheese9921]

this is what they look like, they should be with the rice at any supermarket or wal-mart I don't know what they use them for though

[lawizeg]

They're a kind of Legume; basically a type of bean. My mom makes this AWESOME soup out of them. Also in the bible Esau sold his birthright for a meal of these. They're awesome.

[xlioilx]

I made a few sacks at work. Good thing I work in a injection molding factory instead of beans that get old I used natural polycarbonate beads about the size of a drop of water each. I also made one sack with nylon its kinda bouncy.

[Lazy Ape]

The nylon idea sounds sweet - how did you sew it back up? Do you have a pic? Adam

[sleeping_gecko]

They're a kind of bean. Actually, they're a really great kind of bean. They cook super fast compared to other beans (no overnight soak necessary, and they can cook in about 30 minutes). Pretty tasty and easy. Crack open a hacky sack and make some soup! Or...just use them from the package...

[Ribs]

You use thm i soups and samp stuff, its basicaly like beans.

[TristanW]

Alright thanks alot man.

[power]

If I make one small hacky sack,would it work? I mean like performance

[DONTsawTHEhost]

hey would Denim work for the Fabric?

[Grmgunner]

My buddy thomas got me into hackin and he makes his hacks out of the tops of old beanies, he cuts them off and sews em up with some beads inside. i love those.

[hackyfreak101]

Thanks For the tips that hacky sack was great i got to go to Germany the hacky sack titles all thanks to you. you ROCK!!!

[Dragon Force Fan]

Great instructions man, How long will one of these hackysacks last?

[snil]

sweet sakCool i made one of these and it was ok, but then i did some looking on google and found a cooler design.sweet sak
yours it a good idea. ill post my footbags when i get home

[drummonkey92]

nice instructable!

realy liked wat i could see of ur room in da videos....
hendrix poster+ guitar statue thingy+ good music in background+ hacky sak = someone whos been to some music festivals, and slept in tents in the mud...
correct?

[bencreative]

First off i'd just like to say nice initiative! and don't let the man get you down... or in this case get your goods.

I too enjoy making my own hacky sacks although I make them out of leather.
I use what is called a speedy stitcher which is basically a sewing awl, making the process a little easier on the hands and somewhat less time consuming. Instead of using strips of material as you did (which resembles more the manner that juggling balls are made) these hacky sacks use 6 squares and 8 triangles. I have seen other hacky sacks that have more and less squares and triangles, i have even seen them using hexagons. Try different combinations etc until you find a hacky sack that's right for your style :)

The speedy stitcher can be seen at the bottom of the photo, the hacky sack on the right is one i bought, the one on the left is one I made from scrap leather. I wanted something that wouldn't get caught so much in the wind so I filled this one with sand. Although some does leak from between the stitches it doesn't effect performance and when it gets too empty sand is easy to find at the beach to refill it.

for something completely different check this out :
http://dublin.craigslist.org/spo/211535564.html
chinese hacky sacs :) there is even an early Jacky Chan video (dubbed into French)