How to make a heart pom pom
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How to make pom pom hearts for Valentine’s Day

We haven’t celebrated Valentine’s day for years, but I’m hooked with making pom poms at the moment. I spotted some pom pom hearts the other day, and decided to try making some.

How to make a heart pom pom

With heart pom poms it’s all about the shaping and trimming. Yes, you need to make sure there’s plenty of wool there, but they don’t need to be as full front to back as they’ll be trimmed down flatter, with the sides showing the shape.

I think these would be hard to make really small, so you’re looking at a medium size or bigger to be able to trim them down to shape. I used the same technique for timing as I did with my how to trim pom poms guide. But instead of creating round circular trimming templates, it’s obviously a heart shape. Having the shape to guide is so much easier than guessing. It avoids your heart pom pom being too lop-sided.

I made my heart pom pom using the old fashioned cardboard templates, but in a triangular shape. They’re not the easiest because they take a lot longer to wrap than an open method. This way you need to wrap sections of wool around the card and up through the middle hole. You can’t just wrap the yarn straight off the ball of wool.

Any wool can be used. I used basic double knit wool because I don’t like wasting my really soft expensive wool on pom poms. You can buy DK wool from discount stores and pound shops, some supermarkets, and obviously craft places. But (when they’re open) do check out charity shops or local selling pages or Freecycle. There’s usually someone who’s got wool going spare.

Depending on your template size, you’ll probably get about 5 pom poms out of one ball of wool.

A wool needle can be helpful to feel the wool through once the hole gets smaller, but I just used a pen to stick through and pick up the wool to pull through. A crochet hook would be an even better way to do it!

What you need to make a pom pom heart

  • Ball of wool
  • Scissors – small but sharp makes it easier to cut
  • Thick cardboard – I used a cardboard delivery box to cut templates out.
  • Crochet hook (or pen would work)

To make pom pom hearts

1, Cut out 2 triangles from the card the same size. Mine were about 6-7 cm each side.

2, Cut out a smaller triangle from the middle of each, probably around 1.5cm each side. Cut through one side of the triangle, and in the other triangle cut through a different side.

3. Put the 2 card triangles together. The cuts need to be in different places when they are wrapped. These will make it easier to remove the card afterwards.

4, Take 1-3 strands of wool and start wrapping around the template, starting over the end of the strands to hold them in place.. You can wrap single pieces, but it will take much longer to wrap.

starting to wrap around the cardboard triangle

5, Wrap each of triangle sides, and as far as you can up to the corners. Make sure each side is similar thickness of wrapped wool. There should only be a small hole left in the middle of the pom pom.

wrapped heart pom pom

6, Holding the side of the pom pom, cut the loops of the wrapped wool inbetween the 2 pieces of card. It can be tough to cut, so smaller but very sharp scissors can be better to use.

cutting the wool in a heart pom pom

7, Repeat on each of the 3 sides

cutting into a heart pom pom template

8, Take 2 lengths of wool about 15-20cm long. Wrap these around the middle of the pom pom, between the 2 pieces of card and double knot tightly to hold the pom pom strands in place. Bring the lengths back round the other side and knot again. It should now be secure (don’t start trying to pull out the wool to test it!

tying around a pom pom hard between card

9, Gently remove the card templates by pulling the cut edges apart. Fluff up the pom pom and work out your front and back and which are the triangular sides. It’s not always very obvious, so keep an eye on where the templates got removed from.

To trim to shape

1, From another piece of card, cut out 2 heart shapes slightly smaller than your pom pom.

heart templates to trim pom poms

2, Sandwich the card hearts on the front and back and hold in place, hold the hanging ties out of the way (if you’re going to hang the heart up), and start to trim around your heart shape template.

sandwiched pom pom for trimming

3, The hardest part is trimming the inside parts of the heart at the top. I separate the middle a bit, to make like a parting. Then just freehand trim that part so it shows as a dip.

4, Once you’ve got the heart shape, you might want to trim the front and back to make the shape a bit flatter. Don’t overtrim, but a little trimming will also make the wool fluffier.

purple pom pom heart

Then you can look at, admire and use your heart for decoration.

Pile a selection of coloured pom pom hearts in a decorative bowl, or hang from ribbon to make a garland. Or just give one to your sweetheart.

Why not check out my guide to making round pom poms 5 ways.

How do you celebrate or craft for Valentine’s Day?

Like this post, try these.

pom poms
stuffed fabric hearts
scandinavian stars
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