The pompom gained its fame thanks to the military. Pom-poms served as insignia in the army. In France, pom-poms were sewn onto sailors' caps. This was done to protect the head from impacts on the low ceilings of the holds. Now these fluffy balls are used not only as a part of clothing, but also as objects for creativity and interior decoration.
How to make smooth and fluffy pompoms from threads with your own hands
To make pompoms we will need knitting threads. Any wool, wool mixture, acrylic is suitable, you can make it from synthetics. Only cotton is not very suitable; it is unlikely to make fluffy balls.
How much yarn will you need? From one small skein you will get a pompom of approximately the same diameter as the skein itself, and from these considerations you can estimate the consumption.
For small crafts, you can just use leftover yarn.
What can you make from knitting threads with your own hands?
You will also need a device for winding threads. You can buy a special plastic one or make it yourself from cardboard, or you can generally use any item that is at hand.
Pompoms using a cardboard device step by step
I want to say that while I was experimenting with different methods, I came to the conclusion that the most beautiful, even and fluffy pom-pom is obtained with the help of such a template. Although other methods have their advantages.
So, first of all you need to make the template itself.
- On a piece of cardboard we draw a circle with a diameter of 3 cm - this is the most convenient internal ring size for medium-sized and large pompoms.
- At some distance from the inner circle you need to draw another one. According to the instructions that I read, we calculate this distance as follows: divide the estimated diameter of the future pompom by 2. I measured 2.5 cm, but in the end the pompoms turned out even larger - about 6 - 7 cm.
- Cut out the ring by cutting it in a straight line (see photo).
- We retreat 1 mm from the cut line and cut it off; such a small gap will be needed for the convenience of winding threads.
- We make another exactly the same template and put them on top of each other.
- We begin to wind the threads from the middle of the ring, opposite the cut lines, in one direction or the other.
- The more yarn is wound, the more fluffy and dense the pompom will be. The optimal amount of winding is until the inner diameter of the ring is reduced by half compared to the initial inner diameter of the ring, i.e. will become equal to 1.5 cm.
- If you make several identical pompoms, you will have to count the number of revolutions.
- When the yarn is wound, take a strong thread and place it between two pieces of cardboard, inserting it under both corners of the template. It is not at all necessary to take the same thread from which we make the pompom, it will still be invisible inside, it is important for us that it is strong and does not break when tying.
- Using scissors, cut the yarn between the circles, holding it with your hand. At the same time, we gradually move the thread around.
- Once the yarn is cut, we pull the thread together and tie it tightly. We wrap it around the template a couple of times and tie it again.
- Now you can remove the cardboard, shake it and shape it into a pompom with your hands.
- We cut off the excess protruding threads.
This way you can make large yarn pompoms by adjusting the thickness of the cardboard rings.
This method requires accuracy and patience, but the result is truly excellent.
Colored pompoms
In addition, using a round template you can make cute multi-colored pompoms with a pattern.
It's very simple. We divide the template visually or using a pencil into the required number of parts and wind yarn of a certain color on each of them. Here you can experiment with both the number and width of the parts. You can even make just a couple of turns of a certain color and get colored dots on the pom pom.
When we cut the threads, we get this beauty!
Tools and materials
To create beautiful, smooth and attractive balls, check out some secrets for making them. The correct course of your actions helps in your work and eliminates unnecessary stress in case of failures.
So, how to make a pompom for a hat from yarn? First, you should acquire all the necessary materials and tools.
The most important thing, of course, is the selection of yarn. It is better if it is dense, porous and voluminous - this will give the pompom airiness and volume.
The shade should be chosen based on the color of the product itself and match it.
The pattern for work directly depends on the creation method - it can be a ring, square, horseshoe, cut out of thick cardboard.
Naturally, the sharpness of scissors is very important - with dull scissors you will not cut thick layers of thread.
The threads used to secure the pompom must be different, much stronger than the main yarn. How you secure the pompom depends on them. A weakly tightened middle will not allow it to be even, the threads will fall out and the product will very quickly lose its shape.
You will also need thick cardboard for patterns.
Darning needle or crochet hook - for pulling the wound thread.
Wool
The most suitable yarn for pompoms. It makes crafts especially lush and soft. The thickness of the thread is selected depending on the diameter of the ball. For large ones - thicker, for small ones - thinner.
The threads may not be new, such as an unraveled scarf or sweater. In this case, they should be wetted and dried to level them.
IMPORTANT! From “curly” yarn, pompoms will turn out unattractive and unkempt.
Pattern
It is necessary to take care of the patterns. Craft stores sell ready-made ones, but it’s not difficult to cut them out yourself from thick paper. The width of the ring is half the diameter of the craft. The greater the width, the larger the ball. The smaller it is, the more miniature it is.
Stationery
For this work you will definitely need pointed, well-sharpened scissors. Depending on the chosen method of completing the craft, you may need a stapler or office clips , a compass, a ruler, and a pencil.
Thread pompoms on a fork
If you don’t want to bother with cardboard templates, which, by the way, wear out pretty quickly, but want to do everything quickly, then you can do without cardboard. Once upon a time, in the distant years, I was in a hospital and the girls and I made poodles out of pompoms there so as not to get bored. We simply wound the yarn onto a soap dish.
You can even wind the threads around the palm of your hand, then cut them in two places, tie them in the middle, shape and trim the pompom.
Sometimes they just use a rectangular piece of cardboard or an old plastic card: they cut it lengthwise in the middle, not all the way through, insert a tying thread through the slot and wind the yarn across it.
And now I want to show you how to make pompoms on a fork.
Four years ago I mastered this method when I made a pillow with a heart. Then I unraveled the old pullover; just two sleeves were enough for pompoms.
A lot of pieces needed to be made for the pillow, so an easy and quick way to make pompoms was needed.
It turned out to be very convenient to use a regular table fork.
1. Place a small short thread on the fork; it will be needed later to knit a pompom.
2. We begin to wind the yarn around the fork. For each pompom I made 100 turns.
3. We wound the yarn, cut and tie the thread lying on the fork, tighten it tightly so that later the threads do not come out of the pompom.
4. Turn the fork over and cut the wound threads in the middle with scissors. This is very convenient to do on a fork.
5. Remove the workpiece from the fork.
6. Now we collect the threads into a ball by hand, trim the excess ones to make an even ball.
My pompom was 5 centimeters in diameter.
I made 22 pieces in total and sewed them onto a heart shaped pillow cover.
Making Tips
It is recommended to adhere to the following tips to make a high quality product:
- The porous and dense texture of the yarn gives pompoms pomp and volume;
- if you plan to create a product with a multi-colored design, you must use a pre-printed diagram;
- It is advisable to have special rulers or patterns for ease of creating a template. Shapes such as circle, horseshoe, square or rectangle are used as templates;
- scissors must be sharp;
- the colors of the decorated item and the pompom should not conflict with each other;
- Each of the pompoms included in the product must be tightly tied with threads in the center. This is necessary to maintain the neat appearance of the product for a long time.
Yarn selection
For making pompoms, stiff yarn with the addition of natural wool is more suitable.
It is best if the yarn is porous in texture. The finished products are voluminous, fluffy, and hold their shape well. However, they can be made from any yarn, for example, with the addition of synthetics or acrylic. 100% cotton yarn will not work as the pompoms will not be fluffy.
You can combine pompoms from any yarn into the finished product - this will give the item a unique look. Thick yarn gives the pom-pom texture. The more wool there is in the thread, the softer the product will be. To tighten the yarn more tightly, you can use strong threads, such as silk, when making a pompom. They will be invisible on the finished product.
Products made from pompoms require delicate hand washing at 30 degrees. Dry on a vertical surface. Then carefully comb it and trim it with sharp scissors.
How to get a product dense and round
How to make a yarn pompom neat, dense and round, and in such a way that it does not take much time, is described below. The greatest difficulty is to ensure that it remains dense and round and does not lose its shape over time due to the gradual loss of threads.
To make the pompom tight and round, you need to tie a constrictor - a special strong knot.
To obtain the desired result, it is necessary to make a constrictor. This is a special type of knot, which is characterized by high tightening force. This knot is used to secure the thread workpiece.
The strength of the pompom can be ensured by tying it with wet thread and tying it several times. The more threads in the workpiece, the denser the pompom will be. In order for the pompoms to retain their shape for a long time, the yarn must be aligned. If using threads from unraveled products, they must be placed wet under the press.
If the yarn is thin
Pom-poms made from fine yarn are usually used to decorate items knitted from the same material. Although it will not turn out to be large in diameter, small products will look neat. It is best to make such a pompom on a fork. You will get small fluffy pompoms. They are not highly durable, but will look beautiful as decoration for things that are not subject to heavy loads.
How to get loose
To get a loose pompom as quickly as possible and without special preparations, you need to do the following steps:
- Threads are wound around the fingers
To make the pompom loose, the threads need to be wound around your fingers. - The size is determined by the number of fingers on which the yarn is wound.
- The disadvantages of this option include the fact that the finished pompom does not retain its shape well.
How to make small pompoms from knitting threads
The above methods are more suitable, as I have already noted, for large and medium pompoms. But how to make it really small? I heard that you can wrap these pompoms on your fingers. And this is what I got.
- I put a thread on my finger.
- She wound the yarn around her finger.
- With difficulty I removed the winding from my finger and tied the threads.
- I cut it, shaped it, trimmed the ends.
The pompom turned out to be about 3 cm in diameter.
But I didn’t like this method, it’s not very convenient, and my finger turned blue from the tight winding. Then I came up with the idea of winding threads around an old toothbrush.
Manufacturing secrets
- the denser the yarn, the more magnificent the product;
- scissors should cut well;
- the color of the pompom must match the color of the main product;
- the thread for tying must be strong;
- you need to tie knots well, several knots;
- The more layers we wrap, the more magnificent the accessory will be.
Tiny pompoms on a toothbrush
The process is the same: we wind, tie, cut, trim.
It’s very quick to make pom-poms on a toothbrush; they turn out small and neat.
As a result of my experiments with how to make pom-poms from yarn, I got these different pom-poms, which you can see in the photo.
Recommendations
Connecting threads of two colors when winding will help achieve the melange effect.
Take leftovers that are unsuitable for knitting: this way you will not only recycle the material, but also diversify the color. With careful winding, you can combine several relatively short sections.
Use thick yarn: this will allow you to complete the work faster, and the decoration will look more voluminous and dense.
For extra fluffiness, comb the product with a special comb for animals: each thread will break up into separate thin fibers.
Pom Pom Crafts
Using yarn pompoms you can make such wonderful crafts and things for home comfort!
This:
- flower arrangements
- wreaths
- pendants
- Christmas decorations and Christmas trees
- toys
- panel
- coasters for mugs
- keychains
- bookmarks
- pillows
- rugs
- curtains
- and much more.
I really liked the idea of making letters with pompoms. If you remember, I once talked about knitted three-dimensional letters and later received a letter from my reader, a teacher, who, according to my descriptions, knitted an entire alphabet for children. I am delighted with such a needlewoman and creative teacher! And children would really like letters made from pompoms, and you don’t need to know how to knit.
I posted only a few photos of crafts, but you can see even more amazing ideas in my video.
Video
How to make donuts directly on your fingers is shown in detail in this video.
You can see how to make a small bell on a fork in the following video.
We make a balabon using cardboard rings using this video instruction.
Sources
- https://handskill.ru/431199a-kak-sdelat-malenkiy-pompon-iz-pryaji-poshagovaya-instruktsiya-sovetyi-foto
- https://svoimirukami.guru/pompon-iz-nitok-svoimi-rukami/
- https://tkaner.com/tkan/sherst/kak-sdelat-pompon-iz-sherstyanyh-nitok/
- https://handsmake.ru/kak-sdelat-pumponchik-iz-pryazhi.html
- https://trudogolikam.ru/master-klass/zabavnye-pushistiki-kak-sdelat-pompony-svoimi-rukami.html
- https://camodelkin.ru/dlya-doma/pompon-iz-pryazhi.html
- https://comfort-myhouse.ru/rukodelie/masteritsyi/kak-sdelat-pompon.html/
- https://vsesvoimirykami.ru/pompon-iz-nitok-svoimi-rukami/
- https://kaksdelat.guru/kak-sdelat-pompon-iz-pryazhi/
- https://sharm.click/rukodelie/pompon-iz-pryazhi.html
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