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Making Pompoms in Bulk

I’m always looking for ways to save time. I am currently working on a feature for Discovery Girls magazine that absolutely needed some pompoms–a lot of them. The thought of doing each one individually nearly took me under. The process to make them in bulk is quite easy and definitely beats making those little cardboard templates, which drive me nuts.

14 at a time? Now, we’re talking. I used a piano bench, but any piece of furniture with legs a good distance apart and room to bring the yarn around will work. Allie and I became a pom-pom making machine. Did you wonder what this sausage looking thing was from this Mid-Make post? Read on through the tutorial and you’ll see.
Add some neon thread to your final pile of poms and you’ve got a fun garland to hang anywhere– great party fare or tween room dec.
Here is the tutorial for making pompoms in bulk.
Materials
::A bench or table.  A piece of plywood with nails will work also. The wider apart the two legs, the more pompoms you’ll make!
::Yarn ( I used around 200 yards for the small pom poms, and it was about right.  For the bigger pompoms, I should have used more.)
::Scissors
Tie one end of your yarn around one of the legs of your bench.

Start wrapping around the two legs. This is a great thing to have kiddos help with.

Wrap a ton of yarn. It takes more than you think it will. I like the fluffiness of my small poms, but the big poms I made were a little weak. The large poms pictured here had a center about 1″ wide, and the actual poms were 3″ wide. I think the ratio would need to increase to 2:1, meaning create a 1.5″ center for a 3″ pom to make them full enough for my taste. You can test the width of the center circleby squeezing the bulk of yarn together between your fingers and estimating.
When you have enough yarn, tie the end of the yarn to the leg of your bench.
Now, you want to secure the center of your pompoms. Cut a number of pieces of embroidery thread approximately 12″ long.  This will provide enough length to hang the poms if you choose.
You want to tie the thread at regular intervals across the hank of yarn. Decide on the size of your pom and use a piece of embroidery thread as your guide to measure evenly.  The small poms you see are about 2.5″ poms, the larger ones are 3″ poms. When you tie the thread, you want it to be as tight as possible. When tying, during the initial cross over of ends, wrap the thread around twice before you pull tight. This will help it keep the tie from loosening, then complete with a square knot. Tie the thread around again.
 It will look like this after you tie them all off.
At the end, fold your measuring thread in half to appropriately measure the end cut. Repeat on the other end.
 Now you have a link of pom sausages like this.

 

 Cut straight down the middle of each section, doing it in two parts to get as straight a cut as possible.
 
After you cut in the middle of each section, you will have pompoms that looks something like this below.  Next step is to trim and fluff the poms. As I mentioned above, I wish that I had added more yarn to these poms.  I think 3“ poms need a center of at least 1.5″, and 2.5″ poms would need a center of 1.25″ etc.
To trim the poms, put your thumb and forefinger at the middle of the pom such that each finger is on either side of the center circle.  Be careful not to trim the threads used to tie the center if you want to use those to hang your pom. Trim pom to get an even circumference throughout the pom.
It should appear rounded like this:
Repeat with each pom and you’re done–over 8 large poms all at once or 14 medium poms.
To make a garland, find a fun thread to string your poms on.
Trim the center threads.
Bring embroidery thread through the center of each pom with a needle.

Adjust the width between each pom and hang. Yay!  Super-fun.  Happy pomming.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  5. Thanks for this, it’s awesome! I read somewhere that “steaming” the pompoms will help puff them up. I suppose it would depend on the type of yarn and I don’t know how you’d do it (vegetable steamer?) but I thought I’d mention it. 🙂

    Reply

  9. Oh my goodness, this is brilliant! For some reason (perhaps the frequent party- throwing that goes on), we go through a TON of pom poms around here. Pom poms in bulk = sheer genius.

    Reply

    • I am a hands on person I need a video can you please make one?
      I really want to make my Xmas gifts this year.
      Broke middle aged mom w/ big heart. (Chrissy)

      Reply

  17. This is a great idea! I have a thought to make it even easier, why not turn the table upside down? It would make winding the yarn easier. I’m so going to do this!

    Reply

  25. This is the best method yet! I pinned it… and then pinned it again! It’s really hard to find. The only difficult part: it takes a ton more yarn than you think! My first batch was wimpy and pathetic lol. But anyway… YAY AWESOME TUTORIAL!

    Reply

  29. This is the MOST clever idea that I have seen! I love it and will definitely give it a try. Can’t thank you enough. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  45. So excited to come upon this as I am getting ready to make a gazillion of these things for a baby shower. When making these one at a time, I generally wrap the yarn 100 times (I like them full). Using your method, did you use a whole skein? Do a rough count of how many times you wrapped the legs?

    Our closest craft store is a “pack your lunch” 36 mile trip away… I want to buy enough yarn, yet don’t want to overdue it either… who wants to make ANOTHER one of those trips to return a skein or two of yarn or worse, have to make it just to buy one.

    Any help you can give will be most appreciated!

    Reply

    • Hi Susan! I didn’t use a whole skein, more like 3/4. I judged it by how thick it felt when I squeezed it in my hand. I don’t know how many times we went around – a lot! I think I got 14 poms from going around that 3′ piano bench. Yes, I feel you about the trip to the craft store – yikes! I hope that’s helpful. I would buy a little more than you think you need an just add more festiveness that baby shower or use them for other wrapping decorations, etc. Good luck!

      Reply

  49. This is so much fun! I love the colors and the idea. This would be a great way to DIY decorate for basically any holiday. Glad I came across this on Pinterest!

    Reply

  53. Wait til the summer!! Gonna get the kids to go round and round 2 garden stakes in the lawn!!! Great outside activity!!!!
    Ceri 😀

    Reply

  60. Wooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww . . . . great idea!! . . . . I will do a garland for my Xmas tree, combining the colors which will predominate . . . fuccia, orange, yellow, turquoise, purple . . . it will look great with all my Peruvian ornaments.

    Thanks a bunch!!!

    Marina

    Reply

  63. This is one of the most ingenious ideas I have come across in crafting, knitting or crochet!
    Thank you so much for this tutorial.

    Reply

  65. making pom poms like that is so good I never thought of that I usually make them one at a time which takes a long time now I know how to make more than one at a time thank you for putting this up here I love to crochet.

    Reply

  66. This is great! Now I can make Pom pom garlands in no time, I’m sure my fella will love it when I have them all over the house 😉 I am going to try more than one ball of wool, say 3 different colours at once when I’m wrapping them around the legs to make it even quicker. I have the wool coming out of the centre of the ball to make that possible of course. Thanks for a great time saver! X

    Reply

    • Hi Nana! Thanks for you comment, sorry you didn’t see it pop up here, I was having problems with WordPress comments! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave one, or three!! 🙂

      Reply

  71. Wow! I bought a $30 gizmo to make these in bulk and never could figure it out!

    I really specialize in super mini pompoms- less than ½ an inch which are a challenge to make beautifully round- but you’d better believe I’m buying a year’s longed for piano bench just to have success at making these!!! ha!

    just a thot for the person commenting on steaming them- I might consider [depending on yarn type] handing them from the curtain rings in the shower and then using a hand held clothes steamer of some repute – I have a Rowenta that’s #AbFab and would make short work of seriously puffing them up.

    I could see a couple big benefits to this method- it could take a lot of the hand fluffing [ time consuming ] aspect away, as well as giving a really great idea as to just how symmetrical your pompoms actually were, making those last little touch ups Soooooo much easier!
    ****WORD OF CAUTION- be sure when steaming to hold and rotate pompoms by attached string only, CAREFULLY AND CONSCIOUSLY keeping hands and fingers far from the steam which is extremely hot and can inflict terrible burns on skin- which would take all the fun out of this delightful project!!!***

    also pretest yarn to ensure it can deal with the steam & isn’t made of a synthetic material that could melt instead of fluff- another big D-R-A-G!

    this has been one of the top three most exciting, well presented, thurō, and useable tutorials I’ve ever, ever come across!

    I’m not a blog reader, but I’ve been converted and will visit often as well as pin to my board, “crafty is as crafty does”, under rochellefoles on Pinterest , and I’m thrilled to post and credit you there!

    Thanks a quadzillion!
    you’ve made a convert!

    Reply

    • Hi Rochelle,
      Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and ideas here. What a great thought to puff and fluff with a steamer! Yes, be careful. I’m so glad you enjoyed the tutorial. xo anne

      Reply

  72. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!
    This has made my life so much easier and happier! Pom poms are one of my favourite things ever and I just made 14 in the time it takes me to normally make 2 or 3

    Reply

  73. My 3 year old daughter wanted it to snow for Christmas but the best we could do here in Louisiana was to make yarn poms for an inside snowball fight. By the time we made 6 from cardboard templates we gave up. I k sw there had to be an easier way to make them. THANK YOU SO MUCH for this timesaver. We will definitely use this come Christmas time! The idea of tree garland sounds awesome too.

    Reply

  74. Omg … I have to tell you I LOVE YOU …n god bless you coz fr past 10 days I was trying to figure out this pompomsss … had almost given up …

    Reply

  75. Perfect idea!!!!!
    Queria fazer um projeto grande com pompons, mas desanimava com o método tradicional. Parabéns pela extraordinária generosidade em partilhar.
    Thank you and lots of light in your life. My English is very bad. kkkkk

    Reply

  76. love it… so cute 🙂 u should make heaps and heaps of these in all different colours and thread them with fairy lights

    Reply

  78. I have not tried this yet, but was so excited to see it! I just cut out about 4 sets of the cardboard “looms” and thought about giving up on my pompom rug project. Now I’m excited again. I can’t wait to try this!

    Reply

  79. This will be my an additional source of income sister, may God reward you abundantly for sharing it to us all.

    Reply

  84. I absolutely am so excited I found your idea. I’ve been wanting to make a huge pom pom rug and this sure will cut the time down.
    Thanks so very much for such an outstanding idea. I’m starting this right away soon as I run out for wool colors I want.
    Thanks Again!

    Jamie

    Reply

  85. Great idea!! I’m not crafty so this could be a silly question but the multi color yarn Pom Pom did you buy it that way or did you add the different colors? My little brain needs as much info as possible!

    Thank you,
    Jennifer

    Reply

  86. This was a fabulous idea. I couldn’t figure out what to use. I was leaning on the ironing board thinking about it, when i decided to turn it over. Just made 16 pom poms at once in less than an hour. THANKS!!

    Reply

  87. Omg I love this. It will be even easier since I have half skeins of yarn that I can the directly in the skein. I’ll be doing this for my trade show booth using my hand dyed yarn for sure. Thank you for such a great post.

    Reply

    • Hi Faith, The most important thing is to make sure there is enough yarn in your original bundle. If it isn’t thick enough, they won’t be fluffy. Then, you need to make sure you trim them enough to make the ends stand out fluffy.

      Reply

  90. My 10 year old daughter has started a little business called Pretty Pretty Pom Pom. We are definitely giving this a try!

    Reply

  91. Why would you not flip the table upside down where the open legs would be exposed? Just seems like it would be easier to load the yarn.

    Reply

    • Hi Kellie, that is how it’s done. The table is upside down and the open legs are there for you to use (in this case a piano bench, but yes!). Am I misunderstanding your question?

      Reply

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