Tabletop Hot Air Balloon Sewing Pattern

Are you ready to deck your party table with these darling balloons? This tabletop hot air balloon sewing pattern is perfect for stitching up some truly special decorations. Use these balloons for Easter brunch, a baby shower or birthday party, or to decorate your little one’s bedroom. Aren’t they just the cutest? They’re also a cinch to make!

Ready to make some? Gather your supplies, then click here to download the Hot Air Balloon Sewing pattern (temporarily unavailable), print it out, and you’re ready to go.

Supplies:

Hot Air Balloon Sewing Pattern

⅓ yard cuts of three different quilting cotton fabrics
ric rack or mini-pom pom trim for balloon base
non-inflated standard balloons (white)
paper snack cups (for balloon “basket”)
burlap (enough to wrap around the snack cup)

Let’s Sew!

Use the sewing pattern to cut out a total of six “hot air balloon” pieces, on the fold. Two of each pattern work well, though you could use up to six different patterns. Open the pieces and press well. Spray with starch and iron again for added structure.

• Lay out your pattern pieces in the order you’d like them arranged. Arrange them in two sets of three.
• Place two pieces right sides together and stitch down one side (taking note of the sides that need to be stitched together to maintain the arrangement), using a ¼″ seam allowance.
• Fold open the stitched pieces and match right sides together to join the third piece into the arrangement.
• Repeat for the other set of three pieces.
• Matching right sides together and the top points of the balloon, pin the two halves of the balloon together.
• Stitch all the way up, over, and down to form the balloon.

• Use pinking shears to trim seam allowances (this makes much faster work of clipping the seams and allows the balloon to turn out more smoothly)
• Fold the raw edges of the balloon bottom under ⅜″ and then ⅜″ again. Press well.
• With the balloon turned inside out, topstitch around the bottom of the balloon to secure the hem.
• With a zipper foot on your sewing machine, align the mini pom pom trim to hang off the finished bottom edge of the balloon and stitch to secure in place. (optional)
• Press any wrinkles out of the balloon shell.
• Place a latex balloon inside the balloon shell and inflate it, pulling the shell down over the balloon until it snugly fills out the sewn shell. Tie a knot in the balloon to secure.

Getting there! It just needs a basket! You can use any little basket you like.

For the little Easter basket balloon above, I simply pulled the fabric balloon top down over a mason jar and then tucked it into the fabric lined basket filled with “grass.”

I found that little paper snack cups work GREAT as hot air balloon baskets. I covered the very bright pattern on the snack cup with some gray acrylic paint and then hot glued a strip of burlap all the way around the cup.

Pull the hot air balloon over the burlapped snack cup and presto! ADORABLE hot air balloon!

It’s important to note that the balloons will gradually deflate, so if you are using these for party decor, you might wish to hold off on inflating the balloons until the day before or so. You can also tie the balloon end so that it can be unknotted and re-inflated. For more permanent room decor, you can also fill the balloon shell with batting.