Tailgate DIY: Baseball Yarn Pom-Pom Rug
Pom-poms aren't just for cheerleaders! We made a bunch of yarn pom-poms and built a custom baseball rug. We went big and made it 3x3' in size - it looks awesome on the floor, but with the proper backing, we could also convert it into a beautiful wall hanging.
You could easily take these instructions and make a softball (just change the colours!), basketball, football, soccer ball...Or if you don't like sports, make this a multi-colour rug using different colours of yarn in a circle, oval, square, rectangular shape.
Check out the deets:
1. Buy yourself a rug-hooking canvas. We found ours at a local craft store in the rug-hooking aisle:
2. Open that bad boy up!
3. We used a pencil tied to a string that was 18" in length and drew a circle on the open canvas and then cut it out:
4. Then we folded the canvas in half and half again (into a quarter). We used a large red sharpie to mark where the stitches of the baseball would be. You need to do this to know where to attach the different colour pom-poms. The best part of the sharpie is it goes through to the other layers since this is an open weave canvas - just be sure you have something underneath so you aren't accidentally marking the floor. Once you've drawn over the quarter, open it up and go over the red marks again so it's more visible.
5. Now it's time to make your pom-poms. We used a variety of textures and shades of red and white. Overall, this size of rug will require a fair amount of wool - approximately 12 balls of white yarn and 4 red (depending how big the ball of yarn is and how big you make the pom-poms). The "high tech" equipment we use was as piece of cardboard. Wrap your yarn around it several times...the more you wrap, the bigger the pom...the bigger the pom, the less tying to do (aka, make them big...no less than 12 wrap arounds).
6. Once you've wrapped the wool, feed some embroidery thread under the wool against the cardboard and tie it in the middle. We used a wood paper folder to slip underneath but a simple, long needle also works. Be sure to leave a generous tail as you'll be using this thread to tie the pom to the canvas. Tie it in the middle on EACH side...you get two pom-poms for the price of one!
7. Cut each side of the wrapped yarn and fluff those pom-poms up!
8. Since our canvas is already cut and marked, the last step is to assemble! Feed the embroidery thread from the front to the back of the canvas and tie both ends together. Be sure to tie them a few times to get a nice, tight fit. Start with the red "threads" of the baseball first and then fill in the white around those.
9. Show off your mad craft skills because you are done!
Definitely Wrigley the Shop Dog approved!
What you need:
- Rug canvas
- Approx 12 balls of white yarn
- Approx 4 balls of red yarn
- Cardboard
- Long needle or something to feed embroidery thread through yarn
- Approx 4 skeins of embroidery thread
- Scissors
- Sharpie
Pro Tip #1: If you're tight on time, be sure to cut down the size of the rug and increase the size of your pom-poms.
Pro Tip #2: Be extra certain you tie your embroidery thread super tight around your pom-poms or you risk having random pieces of yarn floating around.
Pro Tip #3: if you run out of pom-poms before you've completed the rug, don't panic! Just make more and add them in...that's the beauty of using a variety of shades and textures - you don't need the exact same yarn.