Pom Pom Ponderings

No, this has nothing to do with my friend Karen’s blog of that name [here] – although I can recommend PP if you want a bright and cheery blog, full of colour and delight. She shares great pictures of her artwork, her garden, her grandchildren and much, much more. No, this is another Wedding Decoration Tutorial. Steph mentioned she’d like large white pompoms. They are all over the Internet

Some are fluffier than others, some are dyed pastel colours –most are made of tissue paper or coffee filters. Because I am that sort of crazy lady, I bought 1000 coffee filters for £2 in a sale a few years back*. Some got used here

I had more than enough to experiment with, and over Easter I used a method from Martha Stewart Weddings – but it really didn’t work. So here’s my 1st attempt. You need 17 filters per pp.

If you buy a pack of 200**, use just 16 in four of the pps, to get a dozen pps in total. Use less than 16 filters, and they look a bit ‘thin’

You also need a needle and some strongish thread- I used some button thread. The first, very tedious, job is separating out the filters, as they really do stick together. Put twelve on one side.

Fold all the rest into quarters. Stack them in heaps of EIGHT [**a few may be just 7]

Now cut a length of thread 5’ long, and thread it double through your needle. Make a firm know at the end.  Poke the needle through the corner of the stack of eight, and pull through, gently but firmly. Then take one of the spare unfolded filters, put it behind the stack and push the needle through the centre, out to the other side.

Turn the paper over, and thread a stack of 8 more on the other side. Knot the thread as close as you can to the papers [make a sort of embroiderer’s French Knot] then do a line of large running stitches out to the edge of the ‘flat’ filter. Leave that end of thread for hanging [it’s double, so knot the ends]

Now take your first completed pompom, and carefully unfold each of the quartered filter papers. You should have a good fluffy pompom, and if you hold the thread, it will hang neatly, with the ‘flat’ filter in a vertical position.

IMPORTANT TIP  - now you know how it works, carefully re-fold those filters so you have a flattish round stack again. Fold the big filter in half, tucking that long thread inside, so it doesn’t knot or tangle.

Below are two such stacked pps, which I flattened under a heavy book.

Notice that the hanging thread is hidden inside. Make all the pps you need, and then you can either store them like this in a box, or gently roll them into cones and put into a bag [which is what I have opted to do]

These will store in minimal space, and can travel safely up to Kirby, where it will take a minute or so to unfurl and fluff up each one, before hanging it from its thread.

My dozen pps have cost less than 50p in total – but even if I had purchased the filters online they wouldn’t have been too expensive. DO make sure you buy the pleated ones, not the flat filters, these ones are about 9” across when flattened.

*No, I had no idea when I got them that this was how I would use them – they just seemed an unmissable bargain at the time!