No matter how you spell pom poms (pom-poms, or pompoms), they are all adorable fluffy balls of yarn that are used for embellishing clothing, accessories, and home dec projects.
Learn how to make pom-poms with eight different methods using things you may already have at home, including a dinner fork, cardboard, your fingers, and a plastic pom-pom maker.
Making a yarn pom-pom is simple: wrap the yarn, tie the middle tightly, cut the loops, and trim the yarn into a fluffy ball. The tool you use determines the size and shape of your finished pom-pom.
Whether you want tiny pom-poms for a craft project or an oversized pom-pom for a decoration, there’s a method here for you. I’ll show you how each one works, what supplies you need, and how to get the best results.
What you’ll learn
- Eight ways to make pom-poms with yarn, with or without a special tool.
- How to make small, medium, and oversized yarn pom-poms.
- Which yarns work best for fluffy, full pom-poms.
- How to tie, cut, fluff, and trim your pom-poms so they hold their shape.
- How to use leftover yarn to make colorful pom-poms for gifts and crafts.
How do you make a pom-pom with yarn?
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Wrap yarn around a tool or your fingers, tie the center tightly with a separate piece of yarn, cut the loops on both sides, and fluff and trim the ends into a round shape.
How do you make a pom-pom without a pom-pom maker?
Use a dinner fork, a carving fork, a piece of cardboard, an empty toilet paper roll, or your fingers. Each method creates a different size of pom-pom.
What is the best yarn for making pom-poms?
Acrylic, wool, cotton, and other yarns can work. Smooth yarn is easy to wrap and trim, while fluffy or textured yarn creates a different finish. Thicker yarn often produces a fuller-looking pom-pom with fewer wraps.
How do you make a pom-pom fluffy and round?
Tie the center securely before cutting the loops. Gently shake and fluff the yarn, then trim small amounts at a time, turning the pom-pom as you work to create an even shape.
Quick start: make a yarn pom-pom
You’ll need:
- Yarn in your favorite color
- Sharp scissors
- A piece of cardboard, a fork, your fingers, or a pom-pom maker
- An extra piece of yarn to tie the center
The basic steps:
- Wrap yarn around your chosen tool or fingers.
- Slide a separate piece of yarn around the middle of the bundle.
- Tie the center as tightly as possible with a secure knot.
- Cut the loops on both sides of the center tie.
- Fluff the yarn and trim the ends until the pom-pom looks round.
TIP: Leave the center tie long if you plan to attach the pom-pom to a hat, garland, gift, or other project. It’s easier to attach a pom-pom when you have enough yarn to work with.
Is there a perfect pom pom? Or the best yarn for pom poms? The perfect pom pom is the one you make. You can make wool pom poms, pom poms with string, acrylic yarns – anything you can wrap around something!
Have fun, try some of these different ways to make them, and decide what is best for you!
How to make a pom pom with a dinner fork
Materials needed to make a pom pom with a dinner fork
- Dinner fork with an even number of tines, my fork has four tines
- Yarn
- Sharp scissors, I use Karen Buckley Perfect Scissors
Learn how to make a yarn pom pom with a fork! Start by winding your yarn around the tines of your fork. For this pom pom, I wound this yarn 75 times around the tines. It’s important to have the opening below the yarn ball so that you can lace a piece of yarn through to tie the middle of the yarn ball.
Below I have slipped one end of a piece of yarn through the middle opening in the fork. You can use any length of yarn. I like to have a piece of yarn that is at least 12-inches long. Depending on how you are using your pom pom, you may want the tie-off string longer.
Bring the yarn up over the top of the yarn ball and tie tightly.
Below is a picture of the tie tight around the yarn ball.
Take your scissors and slip them inside between the fork and one of the sides of the loops and begin cutting. Try to cut in the middle of the loop. This is where a sharp pointed scissor makes the job easier.
Below I’ve cut one side of the loops and ready to cut the other side.
Cut the loops on both sides of the middle tie-off. Take the pom pom off the end of the fork. I like to give the middle tie one more tight knot. If your knot is not tight, you might loose your yarns.
Now it’s time to fluff your pom pom and trim up some of the longer yarns. Below you’ll see the pom pom is fluffed but some of the yarns are longer and messy.
Take your sharp scissors and give your pom pom a little hair cut!
Here is the pom pom all trimmed up!
The pom pom made on a dinner fork is all finished!
How to make a pom pom with a carving fork
Why a carving fork? It is much larger than a dinner fork and it only has two tines so it is easier to tie off the center of the pom pom.
Materials needed to make a pom pom with a carving fork
- Carving fork with two tines
- Yarn
- Sharp scissors, I use Karen Buckley Perfect Scissors
Start by wrapping the yarn around the fork tines.
Here is the fork full of yarn. This time I wrapped the yarn 75 times.
Time to tie off the center of the yarn bundle. It is much easier to get one end of the piece of yarn through the middle of this fork!
Bring your piece of yarn up and over the bundle and tie to secure the pom pom.
Take your sharp scissors and begin cutting one side of the loops.
Cut the loops on the other side.
Below the loops have been cut and the pom pom is ready to be released from the fork.
Now the pom pom is ready to be trimmed.
This pom pom doesn’t need as much trimming but still needed a little.
Here is the finished pom pom made on a carving fork all trimmed up and ready for a project!
How to make a pom pom with a piece of cardboard
This is the way our mom used to make pom poms when I was growing up. She would use the piece of cardboard that comes in the package of bias tape or rick rack.
The benefit of using a piece of cardboard is that you can make a pom pom of any size. The finished size depends on the width of your cardboard.
Materials needed for making pom poms with cardboard
- Piece of cardboard
- Yarn
- Sharp scissors, I use Karen Buckley Perfect Scissors
Start by winding your yarn around the piece of cardboard. For this pom pom I’m using a boucle yarn.
I’ve wrapped the yarn around 75 times.
With this method, there isn’t a way to tie off the center of the pom pom until we take the yarn off of the cardboard.
For this pom pom, I took an extra step. The boucle yarn is thick and fluffy. I wanted to make sure I knew where to put my scissors to cut the loops. I took two pieces of kitchen string and slipped them inside the yarn bundle and pulled each to one side. The strings will give me guides for cutting the loops. I’ll be able to slip the bundle of yarn off of the cardboard to tie off the middle. And then use the strings to guide my scissors.
Next, I gently slipped the yarn bundle off of the cardboard, leaving the strings inside. Then, take a length of your yarn and tie it around the middle of the bundle to secure the pom pom.
Tie it tight.
Pull the strings to the outside on both sides. Slip your scissors into the bundle along side the string to cut the loops.
Here is one side all cut.
Cut the other side of the loops.
Trim up the pom pom yarn. This one needed a lot more trimming!
And, here is the finished pom pom made with a piece of cardboard.
You can cut your own cardboard template any size you’d like. The finished dimension of your pom pom will be approximately the width of your piece of cardboard.
How to make a pom pom with a toilet paper roll
Yes, you read that right, a toilet paper roll! When you are tossing the empty roll into the recycling bin do you think “I should be able to use toilet paper rolls for something”!
You can also use an empty paper towel roll, but they are much longer and not as easy to handle.
Materials needed to make a pom pom with a toilet paper roll
- Empty toilet paper roll
- Yarn
- Sharp scissors, I use Karen Buckley Perfect Scissors
Wrap your yarn around the toilet paper roll. For this pom pom I’m using some leftover rug yarn. It is a sturdy yarn and holds its shape.
Slip the yarn bundle off of the toilet paper roll. See how sturdy this yarn is? It stays right where I put it! Place a piece of yarn around the middle to tie it off.
Tie the yarn tightly around the middle of the yarn bundle.
Use scissors to slip into one side of the loops and cut.
Cut the other side of the loops.
Fluff up your pom pom.
Trim up the pom pom. Here is the finished pom pom made around a toilet paper roll.
How to make a pom pom with two fingers
All you have is some yarn? You can still make pom poms! By wrapping the yarn around your pointer finger and your middle finger you can make a nice small pom pom.
Materials needed to make a pom pom with your fingers
- Your pointer and middle fingers
- Yarn
- Sharp scissors, I use Karen Buckley Perfect Scissors
Continue wrapping until you have as much yarn as you’d like. Slip a tie off yarn through your two fingers.
Bring the ends of the tie off yarn to the top of your fingers and tie as tightly as you can with one hand. This is where it would be nice to have someone helping you.
Slide the pom pom off of your fingers. Hold the center of the yarn bundle and tie it tighter.
Here is the finished tied off bundle of yarn.
With this yarn, it is easy to see the loops so I didn’t put the string on the sides before cutting. Gently slip your scissors in one side of the loops and cut.
Cut both sides of loops.
Trim up the pom pom you made on your fingers and it’s done!
How to make a pom pom with your hand
Love the idea of using your fingers but want a bigger pom pom? Use your entire hand!
Materials needed to make a pom pom with your hand
- Your hand
- Yarn
- Sharp scissors, I use Karen Buckley Perfect Scissors
Wrap the yarn around all four fingers.
I wrapped the yarn around my hand 75 times.
This time, slip the length of yarn for the tie off between your ring finger and your middle finger.
Here is a look at the other side of your hand.
Slip the yarn bundle off of your hand and tighten the center ties.
For this pom pom, since it is so large I wanted a really secure knot. I turned over the yarn bundle and did a second knot.
Take your scissors and begin cutting the loops on one side.
Cut the loops on the other side.
This yarn wasn’t very fluffy. Here it is all cut but it needs to be fluffed.
I fluffed it into a pom pom and trimmed its edges. The finished pom pom made with my hand!
How to make a pom pom from a skein of yarn
Want BIG pom poms? Take an entire skein of yarn to make one! I found this skein of yarn at the local dollar store and thought I’d give it a try. If it didn’t work, I wouldn’t be out much.
Take off the label, and cut a piece of yarn that is about 20 – 30 inches long from one end. Tie it around the middle of the skein of yarn. I tied it from one side, flipped it over, pulled tight again, and gave it a double knot.
Start cutting one of the ends.
It does make a mess! Keep cutting.
Below I’ve cut both ends of the skein. Some of the loops near the center I just cut the loops open. It’s messy and needs quite a bit of trimming to be a nice and tidy pom pom!
Below is the finished pom pom made from a skein of yarn. This took me about 10 minutes to make. The finished pom pom is about 6-inches in diameter. I’m headed back to buy more inexpensive yarn to make more. These will be fun on the tree this holiday season!
How to make a pom pom using a plastic maker
Plastic pom pom makers come in a variety of sizes. Here are the sizes I have in my collection of tools.
Why would you want to buy (and use) another tool to create? The benefit of the pom pom maker is that you do less trimming to make a perfectly round pom pom.
The downside is that you can’t make them any size you want. You are limited to the size of the makers. Also, you can only fill them so full with yarn, limiting the fullness and fluffiness of your pom pom.
You can buy a set of pom pom makers for a variety of popular sizes.
Materials needed to make a pom pom with a plastic maker
- Plastic pom pom maker, I used a Clover pom pom maker
- Yarn
- Sharp scissors, I use Karen Buckley Perfect Scissors
To start, open your pom pom maker. It has two sets of arms. Flip open the arms with the tabs.
Here is the pom pom maker fully open.
Start with arms on one side of the maker. Holding the two arms on one side, wrap your yarn around the half of the donut. For this pom pom I’m using two different yarns to make a two-color pom pom.
Gently adjust the yarn to fill the first wrap evenly around the two arms.
Continue wrapping and fill the entire center of the donut with yarn. Don’t overfill or the arms won’t close on the maker. Below you can see I can add a few more loops around the maker.
Below the yarn is perfect. See how it is flat across the top?
Fold the two arms with the yarn on them down to the base of the maker. This will secure your yarn until you have wrapped the other side of the maker.
Holding the base of the maker with the first set of arms filled with yarn, begin wrapping the other set of arms with your yarn.
Below the second set of arms are filled perfectly with yarn.
When the second set of arms is full, fold them back to the base of the pom pom maker. So cute. Nice and tidy yarn wrapped around the pom pom maker.
Next, it is time to cut your yarn. For this method of making pom poms you really need sharp scissors. You’ll see a little groove on the side between the two arms. Staring at the beginning of one of the sides, slip the end of your scissors into the groove and begin cutting the loops.
Continue cutting in the groove until all of the loops have been cut.
Next step, take a piece of yarn to tie off your pom pom. Place it in the groove around the base of the maker.
Below is a different view of tying off the middle of the pom pom.
Pull tight and tie a knot.
Next, open the arms and release the yarn
Open the arms on the other side of the maker.
Hold the base of the maker so that you can pull apart from the center.
Gently pull the centers apart.
Your finished pom pom can slide off of the center posts.
Trim up the outside edges of your pom pom and it’s finished!
Common mistakes when making yarn pom-poms
The pom-pom falls apart
What went wrong: The center tie wasn’t tight enough, so strands slipped out when you cut the loops or fluffed the yarn.
How to fix it: Pull the center tie firmly and knot it several times before cutting the loops. Leave the tie ends long if you’ll attach the pom-pom to another project.
The pom-pom looks thin or sparse
What went wrong: You didn’t wrap enough yarn around your tool or fingers.
How to fix it: Add more wraps next time. You can also combine yarns or use a thicker yarn for a fuller look.
The pom-pom isn’t round
What went wrong: Some strands are longer than others, or the yarn wasn’t distributed evenly.
How to fix it: Fluff the strands in every direction. Trim small amounts at a time, turning the pom-pom as you work.
The loops won’t cut cleanly
What went wrong: Your scissors may be dull, or the yarn bundle may be too thick for the blades.
How to fix it: Use sharp scissors and cut a few loops at a time. Keep your fingers away from the blades, especially when working with small forks or a pom-pom maker.
The yarn bundle slips while you’re tying it
What went wrong: The bundle wasn’t held firmly in the middle, or the yarn was slippery.
How to fix it: Keep the loops together and tighten the center tie before releasing the bundle. For slippery yarn, make an extra knot.
The finished pom-pom sheds yarn
What went wrong: Some strands may not be held securely in the center, or loose fibers may be coming from the yarn itself.
How to fix it: Secure the center with a firm knot and gently shake out loose fibers. Some yarn types naturally shed more than others.
What yarn is best to make pom poms?
You can make yarn pom-poms with acrylic, wool, cotton, and many other yarn types. The best choice depends on the look you want and how you plan to use the finished pom-pom.
- Acrylic yarn: An affordable, versatile choice for colorful pom-poms and everyday crafts.
- Wool yarn: Can create a soft, full pom-pom, depending on the yarn’s construction.
- Thick yarn: Fills out a pom-pom quickly and can create a chunky look.
- Thin yarn: Works well for delicate, detailed, or smaller pom-poms, although you may need more wraps.
- Textured yarn: Bouclé and other novelty yarns create interesting surfaces, but they may need extra care when tying and trimming.
Leftover yarn is perfect for this project. Combine colors, mix yarn weights, or make a scrappy pom-pom from several small pieces.
There is no single perfect yarn for pom-poms. Experiment with what you have and see which textures and colors you like best.
Do I have to use yarn to make pom poms?
No! Some of the cutest pom poms are made with other materials.
Make some big tulle pom poms that would be perfect for decorating a wedding or baby shower.
Use up some of your fabric scraps but cutting or tearing lengths of fabric into narrow strips to make your pom poms.
Make tissue paper pom poms using the same method. Take a package of tissue paper and cut a 1 to 2-inch strip across the bottom of the folds of paper. Tie a string around the middle. Cut through the paper loops on the sides. Fluff open the tissue paper! A perfect home decor project!
What can you make with yarn pom-poms?
Once you’ve made a few pom-poms, there are plenty of ways to use them.
- Decorate knitted and crocheted accessories. Add a pom-pom to the top of a hat or the ends of a scarf.
- Make a pom-pom garland. String several pom-poms together for a party, nursery, craft room, or seasonal display.
- Embellish handmade gifts. Attach a pom-pom to gift wrapping or a handmade gift tag.
- Create holiday decorations. Make colorful pom-poms for a Christmas tree, wreath, or festive display.
- Add texture to home décor. Use pom-poms to embellish pillows, baskets, or other decorative projects.
- Use up leftover yarn. Combine yarn scraps in different colors for a playful, multicolored finish.
You can also experiment with other materials. Tissue paper makes fluffy decorations, while fabric strips can create a more rustic, textured pom-pom.
Tips for making pom poms
- Use a tapestry needle to thread the tie-off yarn through the fork or your fingers.
- To make a really dense pom pom, use a thick yarn and wrap it more times. Trim it closer to the middle of the pom pom.
- For really fluffy pom poms, start with a fluffy yarn, like the boucle yarn pom pom I made with the cardboard.
- Use your two fingers or the dinner fork to make small pom poms.
- For really giant pom poms, take an entire skein of yarn and tie it in the middle. Cut the ends and fluff it up!
- Use a double knot around the wrapped yarn when tying your pom poms to make them more secure.
- Don’t have enough yarn? Combine yarns to make a more interesting pom pom.
- If you are going to buy pom pom makers, invest in Clover pom pom makers. Some of the off-brands break easily.
- If you don’t have a really sharp pair of scissors, buy some. I love my Karen Buckley Perfect scissors. If I’ve misplaced them, I use my 5-inch Kai scissors or my Fiskars spring-action scissors.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on the tool, yarn thickness, and fullness you want. I used about 75 wraps for several methods. Start there, then adjust for your yarn and desired result.
Yes! Use a dinner fork, carving fork, cardboard, an empty toilet paper roll, two fingers, your whole hand, or a full skein of yarn. A pom-pom maker is convenient, but it isn’t required.
Use a wider piece of cardboard, your whole hand, or a full skein of yarn. Wrap enough yarn to create a full bundle, tie the center securely, cut the ends, and trim the pom-pom into shape.
Wrap more yarn around your chosen tool. After cutting the loops, fluff the strands and trim gradually. A thicker yarn can also make the pom-pom look fuller.
Absolutely! Pom-poms are a great way to use up small amounts of leftover yarn. Combine colors or yarn types for a unique finish.
Leave long ends on the center tie when making the pom-pom. Thread the ends through the top of the hat using a yarn needle, then tie them securely on the inside. You can also sew the pom-pom in place with a separate length of yarn.
Tie the center tightly before cutting the loops, and secure it with a double knot or additional knot. Leave the center tie intact when trimming the pom-pom.
It depends on the yarn fiber and the finished project. Check the yarn’s care instructions. If the pom-pom is attached to a hat or other item, follow the care instructions for the entire item.
The strands may be different lengths or unevenly distributed. Fluff the pom-pom, rotate it as you trim, and remove only a little yarn at a time until it looks round.
Making yarn pom-poms is an easy way to turn leftover yarn into something fun and useful. Try a fork for tiny pom-poms, cardboard for a custom size, or a pom-pom maker when you want a more uniform shape. Experiment with different yarns and colors, and see which method you like best.
Ready for another yarn project? Learn how to make tassels for another simple way to use yarn scraps and add a handmade touch to gifts and home décor.
Check out how Karolina Merska uses pom poms to make pajaki.
Add a pom pom to a handmade stocking!
Browse through more craft projects on Create Whimsy.
