DIY Giant Pompom - How To Make a Huge Pompom

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Make a giant pompom? Oh, okay?

My father is a high school teacher. He always technically has been, but he had a 30-year break and now he’s come full circle. It’s like the past 30 years never happened. Now that he’s back in the teen-teaching game, he’s started requesting things like coloured glasses and giant pompoms to use as classroom props and ‘talking sticks’. The conversation went like this:

Him: “Anjali, any chance you could make a pompom for me?”
Me, eyebrow raised: “A pompom?”
Him: “Yeah. I need it to be BIG. Like the size of a volley ball.”

And so I made a giant, volleyball-sized pompom. And it was no mean feat, my friends. But because it ended up looking so yarn awesome (see what I did there?), I just had to share it with you guys. While I said it was no mean feat, it was easy, as far as giant crafts can go. There’s a lot of winding involved, and a lot of wool too. The hardest part is the cutting at the end, but we’ll get to that.

The amount of wool you need is a lot. Like, more than you think you’ll actually need. Grab what you imagine you’ll need, and then grab some more. I headed to the op shop (charity/thrift store) because I knew that they did bags of wool for cheap. It’s not fantastic quality, but unless you’re going to be sleeping on your pompom (no judgment here) then it doesn’t really matter. You can either get all the same colour or go nuts and grab all the colours. Basically, it’s like making a normal pompom – exactly the same in fact – just on a bigger scale.

Alas, I didn’t take many pictures along the way (I didn’t really think that it was going to turn out cool enough to share…but it totally did), so for that I apologise. But it should make sense with just the instructions, and when in doubt, just remember it’s the same as a little ‘normal’ one, just bigger.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Wool x a lot
Strong string
Cardboard/thick card
Scissors (sharp, preferably material/craft scissors)
Pencil
Dinner plate or something you can create a template with
A smaller something-something (like another smaller plate, or a mug, or a bowl) to create the centre circle

How to make a DIY giant pompom

1. Create template

First you want to create your circle template. Grab your dinner plate, pop it on the cardboard and trace around it. You’ll need two of these.

2. Create the doughnut

Then find the middle of the cardboard circles, and place your smaller circle template (bowl, mug etc) as close to the middle as possible.

Trace around that on both cardboard circles. Then you need to cut out that middle bit, so you’re going to have a doughnut. To do this, cut in from the edge of the cardboard circle, cut around the middle circle and then just make the outer cut wider. You’re going to be using this cut to wind your wool more easily than threading in and out of the hole in the middle.

You should have 2 large doughnuts with slits now, and they should be exactly the same.

Tip: Make one donut first, then pop it on top of the other cardboard circle and just trace around the hole, so they end up exactly the same.

3. Tie the string on

Place one doughnut half on the table/workspace, and place a piece of string around like the picture below. (I’ve used blue wool so the contrast is greater and you can see it. But use strong string.) This is going to be your tie in the middle to hold all the wool together at the end.

Place the second doughnut piece on top. You should have enough string sticking out at the end that you’ll be able to tie it several times at the end. If these get in the way of your winding, tuck them up in to the sides, and in between the doughnut halves so you don’t get up winding them in.

Tip: Pop some paperclips or bulldog clips in the centre to keep it together while you do the first few winds of wool. Just take them out when you’ve got it together enough.

4. Winding the wool

Now start winding your wool on. And don’t stop. Until the whole thing is full, and the hole in the middle is as full as possible. This is going to take a while.

5. Cutting the pompom

Once it’s all fat with wool, you’re ready to cut it.

Find the holding string that you put there before, and make sure it’s not cut while you’re doing this. Taking your super sharp scissors, at the gap in the doughnut, pop the scissors between the two layers of cardboard, and cut through the wool. And keep going. And keep going.

It may help to tighten the hold string a little bit as you do this, to keep it all together. As I mentioned before, this is the most tricky bit.

6. Tie it off

Once you’ve cut the whole thing, gently and carefully pull the doughnut halves away from each other just a little bit. Using the hold string (which you should see in the middle there), pull as tight as you can and tie it securely. You might do something like pull tightly, tie, wrap around the entire pompom again, and tie again. You can’t be too secure.

7. Shimmy the cardboard off

Once it’s super secure, you can trim the hold string. Then pull doughnuts apart the rest of the way, and sort of squish your pompom together and around a bit to get all the wool sitting right. You might find that some of the pieces are longer than others. Just get to trimming, and soon you’ll be fine and dandy!

And that’s how you make a DIY giant pompom!

Easy, but tricky at the same time. Even if you don’t have teenagers in a classroom and need some sort of non-bounce talking stick (literally the reason my dad wanted this), then it’s still an awesome fun thing to make. My little sister wanted one as soon as I had finished. Maybe for Christmas, but I won’t be making another one for a while. Your arms do get tired of winding.

Let me know if you make one! Or better yet tag me on Instagram.