Remember when pom-poms adorned fat white roller skates and the tops of winter hats in the 80’s?  Then, like neon and skinny jeans, they came back.  Just like all come-backs, the modern twists makes us all a little nostalgic and eager to try them out again.  I’ve never made pom-poms before, but I figured how hard could it be…and headed to Michael’s for yarn.

Because I was making the poms for a backdrop, I decided I wanted them on the smaller side so their texture would photograph well.  If I made them too tight and puffy, they would read as balls, instead of the rough texture of yarn.  First, I wrapped yarn around two finger widths about 20 times.  After cutting off the yarn, I slipped it off my fingers and tied it tightly in the middle.  I cut the loopy ends, then fluffed it up with my fingers.  Remember to leave the ends a little longer on the middle tie, so you can use them to tie the pom-pom to whatever you’re using it for.

My pom-poms were used for a photo backdrop.  I made A LOT of them.  Don’t be intimidated.  It took about an hour to make the pom-poms I tied to the backdrop.

I wanted a graphic look, so I strung the yarn back and forth haphazardly across the canvas.  At first I strung wire across all four sides, but it wasn’t taut enough to hold the yarn in place.  Eventually, I settled on stapling the yarn to each side.  Which means the sides are ugly, but if you were using this for a headboard or a birthday party backdrop, you could simply hot glue ribbon around the edge to cover all the staples.

I completed this project on a Saturday afternoon.  My kids are no strangers to piles of fabric, yarn and hot glue around the house.  What I love is that they get inspired to make their own projects when they see me creating.  Jillian started collecting my yarn scraps and when I was cleaning up, I found this on the table.