Red Pom-pom Apple

The other day, Sista and I were going through her collection of arts and crafts material. As we were taking things out from her treasure chest of cool stuff, we found this “Pom-pom maker” and a ready made yellow pom-pom. We were like, oh yea, this is going to be our next project for Shweez.com.

Tools and materials

Pom-pom materials and tools

• Strings of yarns–2 sets of 10 one-meter strings (math: 2 x 10 x 1-meter strings = 20 strings).
• Pom-pom maker
• Scissors

The Pom-pom maker

The Pom-pom maker comes in a pair of arms, each arm having the section with bumps and the section with holes. The little white thing on each arm, as you can see in this picture below, are the “locks” that will later help hold the arms together.

Making the Pom-pom

1. Combine the two arms of the pom-pom maker by putting the bumps of one arm together with the holes of the other arm, and hold them together like I do in the following picture.
   
   Using the Pom-pom maker  

2. Then, take a piece of string and tie a knot at the position shown below.
   
   The first knot  

3. Next, wind the string on the arms until you’ve reached the end of the section.
   
   Wind them strings…Tips: After you have wound the first string on one section, wind a string on the other section. Don’t forget to tie a knot before you start winding every piece of string onto the arms.

4. This is how it should look like after you have wound about 4 pieces of string on each side.
   
   After winding about 4 strings on each side 

5. Continue winding until you have wound 10 pieces of string on each side to produce these fatty arms of the pom-pom maker.
   
   After winding 10 strings on each side 

6. Now, bring the two edges of the arms together. Lock them in place. You will get a donut of yarn.
   
   Put the edges of the arms together  

7. Use a pair of sharp scissors (especially better if you use sewing scissors with pointed ends) to cut the strings. Poke one of the blades through the hole at the locks and cut cut cut! Sigh… after all the hard work of winding the strings… yes, you must cut them to get the pom-pom!
   
   Cut along the middle of the outer ring of the donut  

8. Cut the strings on the other section after you have finished with one. Can you see the pom-pom slowly coming to life?
   
   Slowly, but surely, you’re getting there…  

9. Take an extra string, slip it in between the pom-pom maker’s arms and tie a knot.
   
   Tie a knot to secure the pom-pom in place 

   Tips: Tie an extra knot on the opposite side of the first knot, so that your pom-pom is securely… tied!

10. Open the locks of the pom-pom maker. Detach the arms of the pom-pom maker from the pom-pom.
    
    Detaching the Pom-pom maker from the pom-pom  

11. Ta-daa!! A pom-pom is created! But look at its uneven hair. It needs some trimming.
    
    Trim the hair of the pom-pom

Shaping/Sculpting the pom-pom

You could trim and shape the pom-pom to just be a ball shaped pom-pom. Sista and I initially wanted to make a strawberry pom-pom, but we changed our minds and shaped the pom-pom to become an APPLE instead! Look at all the ‘hair’ that was trimmed off!

Some final touches

Add a little stem and a leaf to the apple and you have a Red Pom-pom Apple!

Enjoy making one for yourself! And maybe another for your friend!