Sep 29, 20224 min read

MAKE YOUR OWN POM POM TUTORIAL

It’s that time of year again. Winter has well and truly arrived and has us running to grab our winter accessories. But…… does your wooly hat need a makeover? With just a small piece of fur fabric, you can turn your boring beanie into a stylish hat. Once your friends see it, I’m sure you will have requests galore. This tutorial shows you how to create interchangeable pom poms so that you get two looks for the price of one.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN Pom Pom!

Heres what you need

Fur (we made our pom poms 15cm in diameter) Depending where you purchase your fur, you can usually ask for a small length.
cotton DK yarn
scissors
wool darning needle
fabric or marker pen
stuffing
small needle & thread
bowl or plate
snap fasteners (we used 18mm)

Although fur is one of the more expensive fabrics to buy, these pom poms use such a small amount. To save on cost, ask your fabric shop if you can have just a 20cm strip. It won’t cost too much and you will be able to make at least 8 pom poms depending on the width on the roll. Ours was about 145cm and once we had allowed for the waste of the selvage we were still able to make lots.

HERE’S WHAT YOU DO!

You will need a template to draw round. We had an old plastic bowl that was just the size we were after. 15cm diameter is a good for a pom pom, but you can make them any size you want. We don’t use this any more so it doesn’t matter if it gets ink on, but be careful what you use. You don’t want to ruin a favourite plate or bowl. You can make a circle from card if you wish, or use a compass to draw one. Once you have your circle, place it on the wrong side of the fabric. Stay away from the selvage as this will act differently to the main part of the fabric, and your pom pom may go out of shape. The selvage stops the fabric fraying, but on fur material it is more stretchy, so as you are closing the pom pom it will stretch more on this part.

Draw round the bowl or template with a fabric or marker pen. We used a silver marker pen so that it would show up. Remove the template and you will reveal a circle.

To cut out the circle it is best to use a small sharp pair of scissors (ADULT SUPERVISION IS REQUIRED HERE!) You want to get the tip of the scissors in between the fabric and the fur. This will give you a more natural effect on you pom pom.

Cut inside of the pen or marker lines so that you don’t have any ink on the pom pom circle. In the picture below, you can see that cutting in between the material and fur leaves wispy strands and not a blunt straight edge of fur.

This is the fur side of the circle and the strands look natural.

Once you have cut out your circle, you are ready to create your pom pom.

TO MAKE THE POM POM IT’S A GOOD IDEA TO USE A DK WEIGHT OF COTTON YARN.

You can use acrylic or wool but you do need to pull the yarn really tight. Cotton is strong and will stand up to the job. Insert your needle in the outer edge of the circle. Don’t be tempted to go right up to the edge. When closing the pom pom, you may tear the edge and ruin it.

Sew a running stitch all the way round the edge. Keep the stitches fairly large. The smaller you make them, the harder it will be to close the pom pom.

Sew all the way round until you are back to where you started.

Carefully pull the two ends to draw the pom pom up into a ball.

Before you close it completely, insert a small amount of stuffing. If you want a solid pom pom, insert plenty. Take note that the more you stuff it, the heavier the pom pom will be. We like a squidgey pom pom so just put a bit in.

When you are happy with the feel of the pom pom, pull the two strands until the hole is closed. You need to be quite firm here, but make sure you’re not too heavy handed or you will break the yarn. Double tie the ends so that the knot is secure and the pom pom won’t come undone.

SEW THE ENDS BACK INTO THE POM POM SO THAT THEY ARE HIDDEN.

You now want to add a fastener to the pom. To do this, tease the fur back out of the way to reveal the cotton yarn closure.

Place a snap fastener over the hole closure.

Using a small needle and cotton thread, sew the fastener to the pom pom. Make sure that you catch the fabric and not just the fur as the fastener will come off after a while. Its a good idea to use the same colour thread as the fastener so that it hides the stitches.

ONCE YOUR FASTENER IS IN PLACE, GENTLY TEASE THE FUR BACK IN PLACE.

To attach the pom pom to your hat, sew the opposite side of the fastener on the top of your hat. Again it’s a good idea to use the same colour thread.

If you want to change your pom pom to suit your outfit or mood, make sure that you use the same side of the fastener for all the different pom poms. It will mean however, that you will have fasteners leftover that you don’t need.

Here’s the hat with a grey pom.