Pom Poms… the small, beautiful, and fluffy balls that act as great embellishments to everything, including knitted/crocheted hats, tea cozy, scarfs, etc.
And oh! They’re good for decorating Christmas presents too.
While pom poms are always available for sale at your local stores, you don’t always have to buy them. Why? Because you can easily make your own models at the comfort of your home.
The best part about making your own pom poms is that you’re able to choose the color and texture of the yarn to use. You’ll also be able to make the specific size you want.
Let’s get to know the many ways in which you can come up with lovely pom poms using supplies you already have around your home.
First things first…
Supplies You’ll Need:
These are the supplies you’ll need to make pompom using ALL the below described methods:
- Yarn
- A sharp pair of scissors
- Fork
- A piece of cardboard
- Circular item to trace (can be glass, cup, lid, etc.)
- Marker
- A clover pomp om maker
3 Methods of Making Pom Poms:
Method 1: Using Your Own Fingers
This is the most popular method for making yarn pom poms as you only need your fingers, the yarn of your choice, and a pair of scissors.
This is how it works:
1. First of all, cut a long piece of yarn and set it aside. You’ll need it to tie your pom pom together later on. We recommend you to cut it out first because your fingers will be tied up by the time you want to tie the pom pom and it might be challenging to cut this yarn.
2. Now take the rest of the yarn you want to make a pom pom with and horizontally place it across your fingers. If you plan to make a smaller pom pom, consider draping the yarn across your middle and forefingers. For a bigger pompom, extend the yarn to the ring finger.
3. Start wrapping the yarn around your fingers, making sure not to wrap too tightly as this can cut off your fingers’ blood circulation. Plus, doing it too tight might make it impossible to pull out the yarn at the end.
TIP: if you’re using two fingers, wrap the yarn around 100-125 times. And if you’re using 3 fingers, wrap the yarn 125-150 times.
4. When done wrapping, hold the yarn bundle together and carefully pull it off your fingers and then place it at the center of the piece of yarn you cut earlier on.
5. TIGHTLY tie the yarn over the center of the yarn bundle. If you don’t tie the yarn tightly, your pom pom might not be able to hold together
6. Now turn your bundle over and tie another tight knot to make your pom pom even more secure
7. Grab a pair of scissors and trim off the excess yarn and then cut through the loops on either side of your bundle. Make sure you don’t skip a single loop as this can give your pom pom a bad look.
8. At this point, you’ll need fluff up your pom pom by gently rolling it between your palms or by using your fingers. It’s normal for a few strands to fall off at this stage, so there’s nothing to worry about.
9. Your pom pom is almost done…but you’ll need to make it look neat and give it a good shape by trimming off any yarn bits that look longer than the rest.
That’s it! You’ve made your first every pom pom by just using your fingers!
Method 2: The Cardboard Method
In this method, you replace your fingers with a cardboard, making your hands free to do other support tasks while eliminating the risk of interfering with blood circulation in your fingers.
This is how to make a pom pom with a cardboard:
1. Trace a circle on a cardboard using a cup, lid, glass, etc., to form the base of your pom pom maker
Trace a smaller circle inside the one you’ve just made above (it should be around ½ to 1 inch). Avoid making this circle too big as it can make hard to put your pom pom together. The bigger your outer circle is, the bigger your inner circle should be and vice versa.
2. Cut out the circles with a sharp craft blade, starting with the outer circle and then the inner one. You should end up with something that looks like a doughnut
3. Next, you’ll need to make a ½-inch that runs from the outer edge all the way to the inner edge of your “doughnut.” The purpose of this slit is to make wrapping of yarn around the cardboard easier.
4. Place your doughnut on top of your cardboard and trace another doughnut (make sure the slits are well aligned) and cut it out. Now you’ve got two doughnuts which you’ll treat as ONE until the end.
5. Take the yarn you want to make pom pom with and start wrapping it around your doughnut, starting at one edge of the slit and going all the way until you finish at the other edge.
6. Keep wrapping the yarn evenly, until the entire hole gets full. However, avoid doing it too tightly as it can cause your card boards to start twisting and warping. If you want to, you can switch to a different yarn color along the way.
7. Snip off the excess yarn and slid your scissors between the cardboard and yarn to start cutting the yarn. Be sure to hold the yarn together during this step to prevent it from coming apart.
8. Then, cut a long piece of yarn and separate the two doughnuts to enable you to easily slide this string between them. Once you’ve set the yarn into place, tie its ends into a tight knot. Wrap them back in opposite direction and tie another tight, double knot.
9. Now you can remove the cardboard so that you’re left with your pom pom. You can choose to carefully remove them or just tear them apart (though you’ll not be able to reuse them if you do so).
10. Finally, fluff up your pom pom as you did in the previous method and use a pair of scissors to snip off any long bits to give your pom pom a neat look.
Quick NOTE: This is just one method of making pom poms using a cardboard. You’ll come across other cardboard method variations, all of which will enable you to come up with great looking pom poms.
Method 3: Clover Pom Pom Maker
A pomp pom maker makes the whole process quick and hassle-free…which is probably the reason why it’s a favorite method for many people.
To use the pom pom maker:
1. Wrap up both (blue) sides of the tool with the yarn of your choice. The sides are designed to pull out and away from the middle.
IMPORTANT: if you want your pom pom to be thicker, then you should consider wrapping more yarn around the two sides. For a scraggy pom pom, wrap less yarn.
If you want to use different colors, simply wrap one part with one color yarn and the other side with a different color yarn.
2. When done close the disk back up so that it assumes its original shape/form. Use a pair of scissors to cut the threads along the ridge of the pom pom maker. Make sure you cut throughout the entire length on both sides
3. Now cut a separate yarn of around 18-in and insert it along the center groove. Pull it tightly and tie a single knot.
4. Now pull out the two (blue) sides of pom pom maker and pull the middle of the disk apart to separate it into two halves (as shown in the video below).
That’s it! You’re done making a pom pom.
Other methods: You can also use other items in your house to make pom poms. These items include forks (for smaller pom poms), hair pick, etc.
The attached video below will take you through the visual steps of using each of the above discussed methods to make pom poms…
Conclusion
Making pomp poms is so easy and fun that you might get obsessed with it sooner. The task gets even easier following the fact that there are multiple ways to go about it, all of which are straightforward.
Remember these small fluffy balls are good for decorating your knitted or crocheted hats, scarfs, tea cozy, etc. You can also use them to decorate your Christmas presents.
Be sure to try all the pom pom making methods we’ve outlined above and settle for one that you feel more comfortable with.
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