Baseball Cross Coach Gift

My son has fallen in love. It happens in many young boy’s lives. That would be, the love of baseball. He has fallen completely in love with the game. Luckily he had a really great group of coaches this past season. I wanted to thank them for all the time and love they put into working with these little boys! I had several ideas rolling around in my head until I decided on this Baseball Cross Coach Gift.

Here are the supplies that I started with:

Baseball

Wood plaque

Wood Stain

Red embroidery thread

X-acto knife

Foam brush

The first step is to take the baseball apart. I used my super sharp x-acto knife and cut in-between the stitching of the baseball. Please be very very careful with this step, take your time, and cut one thread at a time! We don’t need any stab wounds during this project!!!

As you cut through all of the stitching, the leather will start to pull away from the yarn wrapped center of the ball. There will also be little red threads all over the place.

Continuing cutting the thread until both of the leather strips can be removed from the ball. Side note: Did you ever know what the inside of a baseball looked like? Now ya do! Remove all of the cut up old red threads and throw them away.

Now we need to replace the red thread (I know, seems counterproductive to remove it only to replace it but stay with me). I used a large needle and bright red embroidery thread to weave through the pre-existing holes in the leather strips.

I “sewed” the baseball edges much like I would if I was hand sewing the edge of something. I followed the direction of where the previous thread had been, went all the way around each strip, and then knotted the ends on the “back” side.

Meanwhile, I took my wood plaque that I bought at the craft store and stained it “special walnut” by Minwax.

I was unsure what I should use to glue down the leather strips in the shape of a cross but I ended up going with hot glue. Don’t mind my horribly messy hot glue gun. It really should be replaced but we’re been through so much together and we’ve only had a few little run ins.

The hot glue seemed to work perfectly. I just took extra time to make sure that I glued everything down facing the “right” ways. Looking good right?

The last step was to add a vinyl quote (which is of course a bible verse). I cut some white vinyl with my Silhouette Cameo and placed it at the bottom of my stained plaque.

The new stitching looks perfect and you wouldn’t even know it wasn’t the original. Without it I think the leather wouldn’t stand out as much as it does. I mean, what’s a baseball without the iconic stitching right?

I thought the verse was perfect for the occasion and more versatile than a “thank you Coach….” thing. Hopefully this is something my son’s coaches can display in their homes as a huge reminder of the joy they help to bring these little boys.

In the end the project is pretty inexpensive, it takes some time to create but overall the project isn’t too difficult. My hope is that the coaches will really appreciate their gifts!!! What are some great coach gifts you have???

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looking for another awesome BASEBALL project? I have a full tutorial up on how I created these super cute baseball signs…..