DIY Pom Pom Rug & How To Make Giant Pom Pom's

Hey Everyone :)

So I recently posted a picture on Instagram of some details in Colson's nursery {if you have instagram, you can follow me @joyisathomeblog} and a lot of you said you wanted to see a nursery tour.
Well................... would you like to know why that has not happened? 

I haven't talked about it, because it makes me want to cry, but my camera lens died :( I am going to buy a new one soon, but I am currently getting by with a 50(?) mm lens, which means I can only take super close up pictures. SO I thought I would just show you a quick tutorial of this pom-pom rug I made for his room!

It is super easy & doesn't require much explaining, but it was decently time consuming. 

Here is the closeup. I wish I would have spread out the pom-poms a bit more, because they got kind of squished. But I think that helps to make it super soft & secure. 

This one picture basically shows everything {tutorial of an easy way to make the giant pom-poms is below!}
I used two of those latch-hook sheets found at Joann for around $1.50 each. I sewed them together using a piece of white yarn {you can see on the left here}.

Then I just strung the long piece of my pom-pom through & tied it in a knot. I went 12-18 holes in between each pom-pom, but like I said, next time I'd probably do around 25. When you're first starting it doesn't look that squished, but as you go they can really look crammed in there. 

That is literally it. Super easy. 

 I will not lie, this is not the most durable thing in the world. I mean, it holds up really well & is super soft. When Colson was younger he loved to lay in it and just feel the squishy-ness of the yarn. However, now that he's a bit older he can pull them out, which he also thinks is awesome... me, not so much. 

 The plus side is, it is super awesome as a prop for taking photos! I originally made it to put in front of his rocker, but then I put an ottoman there once I realized I'd be sitting in that rocker 24/7 that first month of nursing. Now I keep it in his walk-in closet & it comes out for pictures :)

So, onto the pom-poms. Here is the easiest way I found to make these larger sized pom-poms. I made this ghetto little tool because I was too enormous to leave my house last summer and go to the store to buy the pom-pom makers. I simply took two cds & hot glue the large sized popsicle sticks in between them. I recommend using LOTS of glue, because you will pull hard on them to make sure your pom-poms are tight & secure. 

1. Glue two large popsicle sticks to the outside of a CD. Add more hot glue to the top of the popsicle sticks & place another CD on top. Let completely cool before using. 

2. Wrap yarn around starting at the edge closest to the CD. You don't have to lay your yarn neatly, I just found it was easier, especially if you want to have pom-poms that are the same size. 

3. For mine, I wrapped 3 layers. Pull tight & cut yarn off at the outside edge. 

4. Take a longer piece of yarn and thread it through gap in between the CD & the bunched up yarn. You will have a long piece hanging from each side. 

5. Bring the pieces of yarn around to the bottom and tie in a knot. Tie tightly, but not too tight to where you can't get it off. 

6.You will now cut the edges of the "looped" part of the yarn, which is on the outside of the popsicle sticks. I found it easiest to scoot the whole thing down just a bit, cut a bit and then repeat until you have cut them all. If you pull the entire thing off the "tool", it can be hard to find the center again. 

7. This part is optional, but I found that the pom-poms weren't quite as tight as I'd like. I just pulled my long piece of yarn and held onto the pom-pom with my other hand, until I was able to make another knot. This is really hard to explain, but if you play around with it you will understand {or look up "overhand knot" on youtube & you will see what I mean!}

8. And last, you can cut your string if you don't need it long. But for the rug I made, I left them all long & that's what I threaded through the base of my rug. 

I hope this made sense... I can feel my "mommy brain" aka "my-son-hasn't-slept-in-3-nights-brain" kicking in. 

Speaking of boy, look who is 7 1/2 months old and has two teeth. What?!