The Easy Style to Make Yarn Pom-Poms With Just Cardboard and Scissors

How to Make and Attach Yarn Pom Poms

Pom-pom emergencies are real. Sometimes you need a yarn pom-pom pronto when you're knitting a hat, scarf, tea cozy or anything else that needs a little cheer.

If you lot don't own 1 of those handy pom-pom-making gadgets, don't fret: You can make i merely as hands with supplies yous already have at home. The below tutorial walks you through exactly how, with extra details on how to adhere information technology to something yous stitched yourself or bought at the store.

How to Make a Yarn Pom-Pom

What You Demand

  • Small scrap of paper-thin
  • Scissors
  • Yarn
  • Tapestry needle

Instructions

one. Choose Your Size

Determine how big you'd like your pom-pom to be, then cutting a rectangular piece of cardboard that's about half dozen″ tall and the width you want. For instance, if you'd like your puff to be 2″ wide, cutting the cardboard so it'south 6″ x 2″.

Pro Tip: If you're making mini pom-poms, use a fork instead of paper-thin. Just proceed in listen that the width of your pom-pom volition be the same as the width of the fork.

two. Create an Opening in the Cardboard

Cut Cardboard to Make a Pompom

Apply your pair of scissors to brand an opening down the middle of the cardboard. The cut should be about three-quarters of the way downwards the length.

3. Cut the Yarn

Cardboard for making a pom pom

Cut a 10″ length of your yarn and insert it into the opening in the paper-thin, making sure to space information technology evenly on each side. Leave the piece of yarn where information technology is for now while you motility on to the adjacent pace.

4. Wrap the Yarn Around the Cardboard

Wrapping yarn for pom pom

Lay the stop of your working yarn on the edge of the cardboard, stretching it across the width of the cardboard. Hold that end of yarn in place with your thumb every bit you begin wrapping the yarn around the cardboard, width-wise.

Effort to wrap the yarn evenly around the paper-thin as yous go, keeping the aforementioned corporeality of tension and non pulling too tightly. If you lot pull too tightly, the yarn may stretch, making the yarn pom-pom smaller after y'all cut information technology. (We'll get to that in a sec.)

five. Stay the Course

Keep wrapping the yarn around the cardboard. Do every bit much of this as yous desire, but recall that the more than yous wrap, the fuller the pom-pom. For this tutorial, we wrapped the yarn around the cardboard about 100 (!) times.

6. Tie the Yarn

Tying a pom pom

When y'all feel like you've wrapped enough of your yarn, pull up on the length of yarn that yous inserted into the paper-thin in Step 3. Tie it tightly effectually the wraps yous only fabricated, and then knot.

Pro Tip: If you're worried about your yarn being besides loose, cut another length of yarn and tie it around the wraps for extra security. If the wraps (aka your future pom-pom) aren't secure, the strands of yarn volition autumn out after you cut the pom-pom.

7. Slide the Pom-Pom Off the Cardboard

An uncut pom pom

When you feel the wraps are secure, slide that whole dodder off the cardboard. Stay tuned: It's on the verge of turning into a pom-pom.

Pro Tip: Some people prefer to cut the yarn pom-pom earlier slipping it off the cardboard. If you're more than comfortable with that, go for it! Doing so can be easier for some, and tin can create a cleaner, more even cut.

8. Cut the Pom-Pom

Cutting a pom pom

Whether your pom-pom is on or off the cardboard, use your scissors to cut the loops on 1 side. Cut equally evenly as possible, so all the strands end up the same length.

Pro Tip: When you're cutting, brand sure those long yarn tails are out of the fashion so you don't cut them by accident. Yous'll need them later on to adhere the pom-pom to your projection.

Half of a pom pom cut

When you've completed one-half the pom-pom, move on to the opposite side and repeat the aforementioned steps.

After cut all the loops, fluff the pom-pom and trim around it to even out the edges. Then, stop and admire your finished puff!

How to Attach Your Pom-Pom

Here'south how to attach a pom-pom to a hat or anything else that could utilize a picayune pizzazz.

Attaching a pom pom to a hat

one. Thread a Yarn Tail Through a Needle

Push one cease of a long yarn tail through the center of a tapestry needle. At present insert the needle through the project from the correct side to the wrong side. Repeat with the other yarn tail. Both yarn tails should be on the incorrect side of the work.

2. Stitch the Yarn Tails to the Hat

Pull on the tails so that the pom pom is secure on the correct side. And so begin sewing one tail securely to the hat: Become back up to the correct side, sew through the pom-pom, then come back through the wrong side. Y'all'll want to sew the tail through the loop that holds the pom-pom together to really secure it.

Repeat this process with the other tail, then weave in the loose ends with the tapestry needle.

Pro Tip: You tin knot your pom-pom yarn tails together to brand certain they don't fall off. If y'all're totally confronting knots in your projects, just be sure your sewing is secure.

Knit hat with a yarn pompom

Remember, pom-poms wait great on hats, but they're also fun on scarves, jeans, throw pillows, even souvenir wrap — basically annihilation!