Pom Pom Garland or How I Made My Inner 7 Year Old Proud

When I was seven my grandmother gave me a pom pom kit. The kit contained semi-circular plastic pieces that clipped together to make a ring that you wrapped yarn around. It looked just like the one pictured below. And you can see on the right are the step-by-step instructions to make perfect pom poms.

I LOVED this! I remember making pom poms by the hour. I even glued them together and made pom pom rabbits, cats and caterpillars. I’m pretty sure that I gifted these creatures to anyone who would take one.

I had been looking for something to hang above the bed of my youngest daughter. When I saw this photo on House & Home’s Instagram feed my inner 7-year-old-self squealed with delight and I knew I my search was over!

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Since my own pom pom kit has long since disappeared, a quick internet search revealed oodles of tutorials for making the perfect fluffy pom pom. I decided to use this one since it closely resembled the one I had used as a child.

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But when I sat down to actually start crafting, this method proved to be more labour and time intensive that I wanted. I guess I had more time on my hands when I was seven. What I really wanted was to make lots of fat, fluffy pom poms quickly. I had planned to make this garland while I visited with a friend. As a first rate crafter herself, my friend suggested I just cut a paper towel tube in half and wrap the yarn around that and then tie it in the middle. Brilliant! Where was she when I was a child meticulously wrapping my yarn around small plastic rings??

Here’s a tutorial showing the same method:

To make smaller pom poms I wrapped the yarn around two fingers and then just slipped a piece of yarn in between to tie it in the middle. After that I could easily take the ball of yarn off my fingers and cut the loops to form the pom pom. That worked okay but the good people of Handimania thought of a better way- using a fork!

You can read the full tutorial here.

So an hour (and a couple of glasses of wine) later I had a pile of fun and fluffy pom poms.

To finish this project (I feel bad actually calling it a project – it was so easy!) I used an embroidery needle and threaded the pom poms on a piece of yarn. Then I attached the garland to the wall with a couple of clear mini 3M Command Hooks and I was done!

I slid the pom poms on the end up to cover the hook – even though they’re clear you can still see them. I also thought that this may deter small hands from trying to hang other things from the hooks!