DIY Simple Fall Garland

 

I made this little pom pom garland for my daughter who is away at college.  The idea came from one I saw at Target.  I bought some little lights to wrap around the garland and jumped right into making my version.

You need yarn in various fall colors.  I used the cream yarn as the base by braiding three strands 3 yards each. Before beginning your braid, make a loop at the end (so you can hang your garland from a hook or nail).  Secure the loop with a good knot and then you can begin braiding from there.  It helps to loop the one end on a door handle to make braiding easier.  When you get to the end of the braid, leave about 4-6 inches so you can make another loop and knot.

The other yarns for the pom poms were of differing thicknesses - some were very thin, some were sport yarns and the green and dark brown were more bulky. 

There are many ways to make pom poms.  You can buy a tool, make your own template from cardboard or use a fork.  That was my intended method (hence the fork in the picture) because I knew I wanted smaller pom poms (about 2-3" in diameter). However, I found an even easier way with my fingers.

Start with holding the end of the yarn in the middle of your fingers and wind around your fingers 5 times to secure that end.  I only used three fingers because I want my pom poms small.

At this point, the number of times you wind the yarn depends on the size of pom pom you want and the thickness of your yarn.  Because I was using yarns of differing thicknesses, I wound around my fingers another 45-50 times for the thin or sport yarns and 35-40 for the medium thickness.  When you're done winding, your hand will look like this:

Cut the yarn, leaving a 4-6" tail.  Tuck the tail behind the wound yarn near the tips of your fingers, pulling it out near your palm.  Pull to gather and repeat on the back side if you have enough yarn.  You are going to use a separate piece of yarn or thread in the next step, but this helps begin the gathering.

If you have crochet thread, I strongly suggest you use it for the next step.  It's much stronger than yarn and you can pull it tighter without breaking.  Cut a 6" piece of thread or yarn and wrap it all the way around the yarn, tightening it at the middle and tying a knot.  Leave a tail to tie your pom pom to the garland.  Make it tight!  If the yarn is still wrapped around your fingers, you can weave the thread between your fingers as you wrap around the yarn, but I usually removed the yarn from my fingers for this step, being very careful to keep the shape intact.

Now it's time to cut the loops.

Fluff!

This next part is the most important part of making the perfect pom pom.  It's all about the "haircut."  You have to find the perfect balance between strands that are too short and the ideal round full shape.  If it helps, you can flatten the circle to give you the round shape you want as you trim.  Don't be afraid to aggressively trim to get the full circle of a pom pom.

Tie the pom poms to the braided garland, leaving about 3-4 inches between each pom pom.  And that's it!  

Isn't it cute?

Happy Fall Y'all!

cindy