TShirt Pom Poms

Posted 2013-08-31 by EricaL ⇒ follow

This is a craft activity suitable for older children, recommended approximately 6 years with assistance. Over 10's should be OK to make them independently.

T-shirt pom poms are a great way to reuse old t-shirts, clean but faded or damaged tees are good for this. No need to buy a new t-shirt if you don't have an old one in the house, you can pick up old t-shirts from charity stores for next to nothing.

They make lovely room decorations, alternatively, smaller pom poms can be used for hair tie decorations attached to elastic hair ties.

Time: 1 hour
Age: 5-10's, Over 10's
Level: Medium to Hard

Materials

An old t-shirt

Cardboard (I used a cereal box)

Pen

Scissors

Two circular objects to trace around, a DVD or similar, and perhaps an SLR camera lens cap

Method

Take your clean t-shirt, and cut into strips with your scissors approximately 3-5cm in width.

Cut each strip open at one end, so you have one long strip rather than a hoop.

Draw around your larger circular object twice onto your cardboard. I used the back of a cereal box, and a jar lid to trace around for my circle.

Cut out your circles. Use your smaller circular object (I used a camera lens cap) to trace around for the middle of your circles, and cut out too. Cut a gap of a few cm in your circles:

Take one long cut strip of t-shirt, place around the inside of one cardboard circle, and place the other circle on the top. Tip - the bottom t-shirt strip is good for this part because it is double width and more study for the final tie/knot at the end of the project.

With the remaining t-shirt strips, wind each one around your card circles. There's no need to knot each piece as you go, when you get to the end, tuck the end of your strip under the last wrap around if you need to, otherwise hold with your fingers. Add the next strip and wrap over the last.

Wind fairly tightly, this will help your pom pom 'spring' into place on completion.

Once you've wrapped as much as you can, and cannot see much of your middle circle gap, then take your two loose ends and tie together in a knot to secure what will be your pom pom.

Take your scissors, place one blade on the inside of your two cardboard circles where you have left your gap, and start cutting. This part can be a bit tricky, sometimes you'll need to cut through just a few of your strips at the time.