How to make a pom pom in under 5 minutes

I love pom poms! At work in The Sunday Mirror we printed a picture of Paloma Faith wearing a fantastic jumper covered in pom poms. 

People at work know I like to craft, so I said I would do a step-by-step tutorial for the paper. I also made a video.

Who doesn't love a soft, squishy pom pom? They're all the rage at the moment with many pages on Instagram dedicated to the brightly-coloured balls of fluff. A great accessory to bring a pop of colour to any outfit.

Gone are the days when you have to spend hours making one pom pom. I remember cutting out 2 circles of card from a cereal box and spending ages threading the wool through the circle and over, through the circle and over, again and again. Yawn!

I love gadgets, especially ones that are time-savers. As a full-time working mum of two children, anything that saves time gets my vote. Whoever came up with this little time-saving gadget deserves a crafty medal, or maybe a pom pom garland.

The Clover Pom Pom maker, a favourite of craft queen Kirstie Allsopp and should be in every crafters sewing box. You will find 4 different sizes in my favourite craft shop - Hobbycraft.

They can look a bit tricky to use, so I have done a step-by-step guide on how to use them. I've even recorded a video so you can watch and pause every step of the way. I learn so much of my crafts from watching videos on YouTube.

What you need:

Wool
Clover pom pom maker
Scissors

Step one:

Wrap the wool around one of the arcs (one arc is formed of two arms). Continue to wrap the wool around until the arc is completely covered. Repeat for the remaining arc. Close both the arcs.

Step two:

Insert your scissors into the slit on the side of the machine, and cut all of the way around both arcs.

Step three:

Insert a piece of wool into the middle of the machine and pull tight, secure in place with a knot.

Step four:

Gently remove the pom pom by releasing both arcs of the machine. Remove the central sections by gently pulling on both sides. Trim off the little sticky out bits.

I have made a step-by-step video. Enjoy!

Make a Victorian girl schoolgirl outfit

You know when you receive one of those letters from your child's school saying 'costume needed', it sometimes fills me with dread!

My daughter, Amber brought a letter home from school about a school trip where the kids had to dress as Victorian schoolchildren.

The Victorian era is my favourite. I started to Google what kids wore in this era. The theme for girls seemed to be a white pinafore over their dresses, to keep them clean. As I carried on reading, I found that the mums used to make these pinafores. So I bought a long black skirt and a long black top but I set about making the pinafore myself.

Now I love sewing, I mainly only have time to read about sewing so when this project came up I thought I'd give it a go.

We had an old off-white bed sheet that I thought would be perfect to use, and I also found an old piece of material from my stash (I love collecting fabric, especially from charity shops), which had a crocheted edge, I also had an old pillowcase that had lace all around the edge.

I set to work trying to figure out how I would make it. The first thing I did was find a t shirt that Amber currently wears, so I knew it fitted her. Then I folded the t-shirt in half and traced around the edge onto baking parchment (this is my cheap version of dressmakers paper). I then added an extra 1 cm all around the edge for the seam allowance.

I cropped the t-shirt pattern quite high as I noticed the Victorian children wore them like this.

From the width of Amber's t-shirt at the bottom I just roughly followed it down to create the skirt part (again adding the seam allowance).

Amber in the Victorian schoolgirl outfit I made, you can just see the bottom. Looks good with the Earlybird filter in Instagram, would be better without the iPod in shot though! 

I then went round and hemmed all the edges, I double folded and sewed down the middle. You can just zig zag stitch the edges (which would be quicker).

I ended up with 4 pieces, 2 tops (1 front, and 1 back) and 2 skirt parts (front and back).

Because I used a well washed old sheet there was no need to pre-wash, if it had been new material, it's best to pre-wash to get all the shrinkage out of it.

I cut off the crocheted piece and the lace piece off my pillowcase and fabric.

I sewed my 2 top pieces together at the top (across the shoulder), then I sewed on my crocheted fabric from the arm hole from the back, right the way up and over the top, down to the front arm hole area.

I then sewed the skirt part to the top, both front and back. I wanted a few pleats in so I made the width a little larger.

After doing this for both the front and the back, I had almost finished. I know, by looking at Google images, that most Victorian school children tied at the back, but I discovered this after I had already cut my fabric! I could have cut it up the back but I decided to put some small metal press stud fasteners on instead to hold the shape, and for ease for my daughter.

The ribbons in here hair came from a tie on an old pair of my pyjama bottoms!

I'm really pleased with the finished look to say I wasn't working from a pattern. I'd love to know what you think. Leave a comment below if you have had to make certain outfits for your kids for school.

I should have taken pictures for a tutorial, I will do next time!