Jumbo Easter Egg - Free Pattern and Tutorial

I have so many tiny fabric scraps and I have been thinking of fun projects to use them up for, especially things you can make with or for children. This project is the fabric lovers' alternative to egg painting this Easter. I've only done egg painting a few times and I have to say it's not my favourite thing to do and even my kids were never that into it. This on the other hand was quite successful and my 9 year old finds it highly suitable for practising ball throwing in the house - 'it's perfect, it's too soft to break anything', he says... 'hmmmmm', I say!!!

Anyhow, don't waste your precious eggs. Here's what you need for one egg:

- the jumbo easter egg pattern (click to download)

- scraps of fabric cut into 55 strips of about 10cm x 3cm

The pattern comes in two pages, but you only need to print one of them. I provided one with metric and one with imperial grid for anyone who's not able to print and could therefore use the grid to draw the pattern on a sheet of paper. Print at '100% scale' or 'actual size' setting on your printer. If you print it on a different scale, you will get a different size egg (which is perfectly fine by the way!) but your fabric requirements and seam allowances will be different and might cause a bit of a head-scratch while making it. So just be aware of that and adjust accordingly. It will print on both A4 and US letter size.

Play with the strips of fabric and lay them in any order you like to make 5 colourful blocks. I did not overthink this bit too much, as I'm sure you can see!

Tip: Use a ruler of some sort to scoop the sections of prearranged strips and carry them to your sewing station. 

When sewing the strips together keep to a 5mm seam allowance. That's all you need. Start by putting two strips right sides facing and sewing together on one long side. Open it flat and continue to add strips one by one to one side. You need 11 strips for each section, but that's if you stick to the recommended seam allowance. If it ends up too short, just keep adding more fabric, no problem.

Press all seam allowances together to one side. 

Use the horizontal line on the pattern to level it with the strips. 

Cut away the sides as precisely as possible.

You will have 5 sections.

Mark the top and bottom point on the wrong side of each fabric section. You will use this to start and finish each seam that will join the 5 sections together. So, only stitch from top point to bottom point, not to the edge of the fabric.

Join two sections on one side only with a 1cm seam allowance. This is marked on the pattern piece. After joining the first two sections together on one side, rotate that seam to your left and fold one of the sections in half to expose the right side of the other section. 

Place a third section on top and pin the top and bottom on the marked points. Sew the two sections together only on the right hand side.

Continue until you join all 5 sections together. You can use a pin to keep the sides you fold to the left out of the way. Don't forget to leave an opening when you sew the last section. This is marked clearly on the pattern piece. 

Turn the 'eggshell' right side out through the opening. I like to finger press the seam allowance back to the wrong side around the opening and baste it by hand to stop it from fraying when stuffing it. 

I had some toy stuffing for this, but you can use tiny fabric scraps, wool, or a combination of all the above. Anything you might have available. 

Once happy with its shape and fullness, pin and sew the opening by hand. 

That's it! You now have a pretty and colourful egg you can toss around forever... and ever... which should measure about 14cm (5 1/2 inch) in height. 

This is just one of the many ways of doing this. You can make up the sections in any way you like, they don't have to be strips put together neatly. They can be any shape or even just 5 pieces of fabric in different colours. As long as you have 5 blocks that measure about 10cm x 22cm, from which you can then cut out your egg sections. The possibilities are truly endless! They would make great Easter gifts, too! 

I hope you and your little ones enjoy these. Please share photos if you make some and tag #dhuratadaviespatterns and #DDjumboeasteregg

Take care everyone and please stay safe.

Dhurata x