Felt pom poms are easy to make with wool, and they can be strung together to make a super cute felt ball garland. Make your felt ball garland in red and white for Christmas or Valentine’s day, choose cheery bright colors to decorate a kid’s play tent or nursery, or even pick modern neutrals for a classic piece of everyday decor.
These DIY felt pom pom garland instructions work any time of year!
Supplies: Felt pom pom garland
To make this felt pom pom garland, you’ll need:
- Thin String or Embroidery Floss (only thin string will pull through the pom poms)
- Scissors
- Embroidery Needle
- Felt Pom Poms, either store-bought or make your own with:
- Loose Wool Roving (must be 100% wool)
- Choose colors you like, from cheery bright wool or modern neutrals.
- Felting Sponge Pad
- Felting Needle
- 2 Bowls or sink with two compartments
- Rubber Gloves (the kind with textured palms)
- Dish Soap
- Hot Water (the water shouldn’t be hot enough to burn!)
- Cold Water
- Drying Rack or Towel
- Loose Wool Roving (must be 100% wool)
Get everything together before you start! You can even order felt pom pom garland kits online if that suits you best.
This tutorial combines needle felting and wet felting to create densely, uniform wool-felt pom poms. This method of how to make a felt pom pom garland seems to yield the best results. Felted pom poms can be created with either wet felting or needle felting alone, but I found the most uniform, densest pom poms were made by combining the two methods.
How to make felted pom poms from loose wool
Decide whether you’ll make your own felted pom poms using the steps below, or order pre-made pom poms. Skip to the next section if you’re using pre-made pom poms.
- Separate out a small piece of roving to make each pom pom. See the photo below for an example.
- Gently roll the roving around into a loose rough sphere shape. The felting process will cause it to become more dense and shrink in size. If you’re having trouble rolling the roving, try winding it around your finger first.
- Needle felt the wool roving into the rough sphere. Place the wool onto the felting pad. Use the needle to slowly and carefully poke at the wool. Take note of where your fingers are and make sure you don’t pierce your fingers with the needle.
- As you pierce the wool with the needle, move the developing pom pom around by flipping it over to create a round ball of wool. Watch what you’re doing and don’t go too fast! Stop once a rough sphere shape holds together well.
- Fill one bowl with hot water and add a few drops of dish soap. Fill the other bowl with cold water. Alternatively, use a sink with two compartments.
- Dip a loose pom pom into the hot soapy water using the rubber gloves.
- Gently roll the pom pom around between your palms in the hot soapy water. The texture on the palm of the rubber gloves will help the fibres to bind together into a tight ball. Slow and methodical rolling will produce the most uniform, smooth spheres.
- Try not to “smash” the felt pom pom as this will create lines. If you do get a line and don’t like it, cover it with a little wisp of loose roving and work in the extra roving.
- Rolling wool can take a while. If this is taking too long for you, simply tie the needle-felted loose pom poms one by one into an old piece of pantyhose. Toss the hose of wool balls into the washing machine and let it do the work! They will be a bit lumpy, but it does save time.
- The wool ball should have become more dense with all of the hand felting in the hot water. Once it feels like it will stay formed together, dip the ball in the cold water. This will shock it a bit and wash out some of the soap. Keep rolling gently. As the pom poms get denser, they tend to look better (but are harder to pierce with the needle+thread).
- Once you’re happy with the sphere shape, gently squeeze out the excess water.
- Place the wet-felted ball onto the drying rack.
- Repeat the wet-felting process for each pom pom.
- Once all the wool pom poms have had a minute or two to start drying, roll each pom pom one last time between your palms to finish the wool balls.
- Allow the finished wool-felted pom poms to dry overnight.
How to string felt pom poms to make a felt ball garland
- Lay out the pom poms in the order they’ll go on the string, especially if the garland will include more than one color.
- Use the embroidery needle to thread the string through each pom pom. If the pom poms are quite dense, consider using a thimble or pushing the back of the needle against a well-secured cutting board. Keep your fingers out of the path of the needle.
- If you’d like the pom poms to stay put and/or be evenly spaced out, tie a small knot on either side of each pom pom so they don’t slide. This should be done after the garland is tested out in its future spot. Otherwise, simply pull the pom poms along the string until you like the spacing.
- Tie a loop on either end of the string.
- Hang the garland up!
That’s it! Now you know how to make felt pom poms and turn them into a festive garland. Hang your pom pom garland on the mantle, a mirror, the entranceway, or wherever you like. You can also combine it with some of my other favorite holiday DIY decoration projects.
Store your felt pom pom garland on a piece of cardboard when it’s not being used. Cut notches in the side of the cardboard so that you can thread the string through two notches at a time and put all the pom poms on the front of the cardboard. A notched piece of repurposed cardboard is the best way that I’ve found to store a felt pom pom garland.
Handmade felt pom-pom garlands
If you’re not into making your own felt pom pom garland, handmade felt ball garlands are available online at Amazon and on Etsy. There are a variety of different color combinations available. Choose from a holiday Christmas-themed garland, a bright, colorful kids’ room garland, or even a neutral Scandinavian felted ball garland.