Friday's Fail: Twine Spheres

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a tutorial over at Thrifty and Chic for jute balls (click here for her tutorial).  The idea was fabulous and I need something to fill a vase that I just purchased for our mantle.  One of the items needed to make these was liquid fabric stiffener.  When I went to purchase it at JoAnn's, I decided instead of paying the almost $8 for it at the store, perhaps there was another way to make the same thing.

Do you remember making paper mache in grade school?  It was great to simply mix some flour and water, dip newspaper in it and then cover a balloon to end up with a really cool art project.  Maybe this would work with jute, I thought.

Here's what I did:

I gathered my materials

I mixed some flour and water together to make a somewhat runny paste.  I then dipped the twine in the paste and started sticking it onto the balloon.

It didn't stick so well, but I figured it would probably dry and be fine.  A few hours later, it still wasn't dry, but I had high hopes!  Maybe after 24 hours.  Later that night, my husband found it laying on the counter, picked it up and tossed it into the air.  Ugh!  The twine came undone and I had to quickly put it back on the balloon.

The next morning, I popped the balloon and inspected the ball.  This is what it looked like:

Needless to say, the flour and water didn't work.  Guess I'll just have to buy the fabric stiffener.  Unless, one of you has a genius idea for me??  I'm taking any and all suggestions!