Sew a Dodecahedron

The purposes of this project are to:

1. Sew a fun, toss-able, and decorative dodecahedron (an object with 12 sides).

2. Practice using the sewing machine. While teaching my daughter to sew on the machine, I found that the most frustrating thing for her was trying to keep a straight seam while at the same time trying to mange stopping, starting, and generally using the foot pedal.

My daughter and I did this together. She decorated the fabric using machine stitching, and I sewed the seams that make the shape.

Step 1 Materials

Materials:

sewing machine
colorful thread
1/2 yard thick, stiff, non-adhesive interfacing (I think felt would work as well)
scissors
round object to trace as template
measuring tape
straight edge
pencil
paper
disappearing quilt marking pen or chalk

Comments

[tim_n]

Could you leave it till the last one and turn it inside out to get rid of the seams? Not sure how easy it'd be to finish it off!

[helsbels]

fantastic! I might make one with catnip inside for entertainment at christmas

[danlab]

You could also sew it out of heavy fabric then fill it with normal stuffing and a squeaker or two and you would have a awesome dog toy

[Jayefuu]

Your daughter should leave a side open, turn it inside out, fill it with sand or beans then sew up the last side then sell them as hacky sacks. She'd get $5-10 each.

[hishealer]

Or more if she adds the numbers of a D12...

[hishealer]

*dreams of throwing the Die of Doom at an unruly player...*

[Uncle Kudzu]

that's pretty cool!

for those interested, all manner of polyhedron pattern can be found to download here: http://www.korthalsaltes.com they're for paper models, but could perhaps be modified for sewing.

i sometimes hand sew simple hacky sacks and balls; like Jayefuu said below, your daughter might enjoy that and sell what she makes.

[hishealer]

Thanks for this site! I used to make these in school and I found the rotating ring I was once so proud of.

[seamster]

So simple and clever--and cool-looking!

[motherfungus]

This is absolutely awesome! I'll have to try this with the kiddos. Great instructable!

[brunoip]

What about doing an icosaedro truncado ?

[jessyratfink]

This is such a great idea! I honestly just want to make some bowls this way. :P