Balloon Dog Pattern

See photographs of some results from this pattern in the gallery.

Copyright/Licenses

This is a tutorial, rather than a proper pattern, though I'll leave the terminology there for consistency. Nor is the end result copyrighted (nor trademarked, nor patented). As such, though the text and pictures are not licensed under Creative Commons, you don't need a license from me to make and sell the result, or to teach other people to make them.

The Pattern

To replace the balloon dog my son got exceptionally attached to, which then suffered a tragic demise (as all balloon animals must), I bought a bit of Lycra swimsuit fabric on seasonal clearance, busted out the microbeads I've been avoiding actually busting out, and made a stuffed balloon dog.

This isn't so much a pattern, or even a tutorial, as an idea to inspire you.

Here are some notes on sewing swimwear fabric, which you'll probably want to read first - I didn't, and ran into some stitch-popping the first time I tried to stuff it.

I sewed a tube the length of my fabric, so that the greater stretch was in the short dimension. A standard balloon is a 260, 60" long by 2" diameter. This is just a little over 6" in circumference, but I wanted it to stretch out, so I went with a 6" wide x 72" long strip of fabric, counting on seam allowances to counter the stretch (scientific, huh?). I sewed the long side, turned it, then tied off one end and took some stitches through it to secure it. If you want a more accurate representation, sew a narrow part at the end to represent the uninflated part of the balloon (see the gallery for a version done this way).

Read the advice on using microbeads found on the packaging. I did do this, though it said nothing about "Your garden-variety dachshund will not understand why he can't jump in your lap during the process."

Periodically, I squoze the microbeads down so that the tube stretched moderately evenly, and became the size I wanted.

I left a fairly long unstuffed portion, knowing that I had a too-long tube to begin with, and tied it off loosely so stuff wouldn't go everywhere. And then I visited some of the millions of websites with balloon-animal instructions, and more-or-less followed them, taking stitches to secure my twist points. When I got to the end, I tied it off tightly, and cut off the excess. (If you've made it with an "uninflated" end, you'll have to reverse the directions you find, starting at the tail, since in a real balloon the "excess" is at the other end.)

And then I did exactly what the balloon artist did, and drew on it with a Sharpie. (Test it on a fabric scrap first.)

This balloon dog, which my son inventively named "Balloon Dog," has survived a year and a half so far, which is probably a record in balloon animal longevity.