How to make a detachable pom pom Blogmas No.4

Blogmas 17

Pom poms are great aren’t they? But if you love making home-made pom poms, you’ll understand the frustration of not being able to wash them. Bits of wool everywhere! The alternative is either very expensive, or not animal friendly. Here’s my handy tip to make your hand made pom poms detachable so you can easily remove them before throwing your garment in the wash with no damage or worry.

Here are my instructions to make a detachable pom pom for your beanie hat.

What you’ll need

Pom pom maker
Scrap/stash DK yarn
Sewing Cotton and needle
Snap fasteners (I used 8mm but larger is better if you can find any)
Sciccors
Beanie hat that would like a pom pom

Step One

Take your pom pom maker and yarn, and begin to start wrapping your scrap yarn around one half of the pom pom maker (Wrap around both arms). I usually continue wrapping from side to side until the yarn is almost level with either side of the center so that I get a nice plump pom pom.

Step Two

Once you have wrapped one half of your pom pom maker, cut your yarn off and close the first half. Repeat step one for the second half. Cut off and close the second half.

Step Three

Take your scissors and slot them into the groove between both halves of the pom pom maker. Start to cut around your pom pom, making sure that the two disks either side are firmly pushed together. (You don’t want your pom pom maker to fall apart at this stage.)

Step Four

Once you have cut around the entire circumference of your pom pom (and there are no strands still wrapped around) you can move to step 5. Check that you haven’t missed any bits hiding in the edges near the hinges.

Step Five

Take a long piece of your yarn and wrap around the pom pom, letting the yarn pull into the grooves. Pull tight and tie into a single knot. Then wrap around the other way and tie a double knot on the opposite side. Pull as tight as you can without snapping your yarn. Leave long tails to sew on your snap fastener. Now you can remove the pom pom maker by holding a disk on either side and gently twist and pull apart to release your home made pom pom.

Step Six

Hold your pom pom by the long strings and use your scissors to give your pom pom a hair cut. I didn’t spend too long on mine as I like a bit of a messy look. If you wanted a perfectly spherical bobble, you could spend hours trimming and making your pom pom neat. (Do this over a bin as fluff gets everywhere) My tip is to only take a little at a time and keep ruffling up the fluff to see where you’re’ up to. Once you’ve cut it, you can’t stick it back on.

Step Seven

Sew on one half of the snap fastener to your pom pom using the long tails left over from tying your pom pom together. Tie securely and cut off your ends to the same length as your pom pom ‘hair’.

Step Eight

Sew on the other half of your snap fastener to your hat using cotton. I used white cotton here so it would show on the photo. You can use whatever colour you want but I recommend choosing the same colour as your hat or your pom pom so if for any reason it shows, it will blend in.

Step Nine

Ta Daaa! You now have a hat with a pom pom that you can snap on and off as you please. Now your hat can be washed whenever, and a new pom pom can easily be added in the event unfortunate event of being dropped in a muddy puddle or getting lost.