 | Pom-Pom Friends | |||||
| These shaggy little guys are so fun to make, and there are endless color and style variations that you can use to make your own little unique friend. I used mine as gift toppers, but they can be gifts themselves or serve as perfect pets for your dolls or monsters for your action figures. Have fun and express yourself! | ||||||
Supplies:
|  | | ||||
 |  |  | ||||
Instructions: 1. Using a skein of soft yarn, make a large pom-pom, about 3.5 inches across. Pom-pom making tools are commercially available, or you can make your own tool but cutting 3 pieces of corrugated cardboard (2 large pieces, such as 8 in x 2 in, plus a smaller 4 in x 1.5 in in between). Wrap the yarn around the tool or template at least triple thick. Tie off your pom-pom with a long piece of the same yarn, tied as tightly as possible, and leave a long tail. (The yarn tail will become your creature’s tail). Shake your pom-pom to make the yarn lay even and trim the yarn tips as desired. Smooth, round, even pom-poms make for a cute friend, but some shagginess adds character! | ||||||
2. Plug in and warm up your glue gun. 3. Using the attached template or your imagination, cut a pair of felt feet (1 double-foot piece) to serve as a base for your friend to stand on. Then cut two felt ears. Fold each ear in half and stitch across the bottom with needle and thread with one triple stitch and tie off. |  | |||||
4. When your glue gun is warm and the glue is melty, you can assemble the pieces to build your friend. Depending upon the age of the child, the grown up may add the glue to the bottom of the feet base, then the child can stick the pom-pom onto it. Smoosh your creature onto the table and see if he can stand up on his own. You may want to flip him over, peel back a side of his feet and add more glue. You can do this together several times until he stands up the way you want him to. | ||||||
5. Decide where you want to add your ears and eyes. Part the yarns, add glue to the backs of the eyes and press in. Do the same for the ears, adding glue to the flat bottom, being sure to cover the thread tails in glue, and press each ear into its proper spot. You’ll notice that whether you put the ears on the top or the side, and which way the eye pupil is angled will change your friend’s expression. | ||||||
6. Trim the yarn around your creature’s face as needed to help make the expression you want him to have (if you’re talented you might be able to create eye bows or a mustache). Add nose, mouth, hands, or whatever you like to enhance his character. | ||||||
 |  |  | ||||
