straw and pompom garland tutorial
November 29th, 2010
a straw and pompom garland
I ordered a bunch of natural straws from the lovely online shop, Imagination Childhood (they call them swedish straws). I bought them for another project (thursday’s tutorial!), but I loved working with them so much I wanted to make a simple garland with them too. Obviously this can be done with plastic straws or even some pretty paper straws, if you don’t have any swedish straws lying around. But the natural straws are, well, natural and because of the they are curved slightly and the colors are mottled and the surface uneven, all of which makes them pretty beautiful.
materials
To make this garland I paired the natural color of the straw with cream colored yarn, which is a little on the understated side (for me). I think bright, almost neon, pompoms in christmas light colors would look pretty fantstic too.
- natural straws
- bowl or pan in which the straws can lie flat
- yarn
- button thread (or any heavy duty thread)
- yarn needle
directions
First you have to make some pompoms. If you have a pompom maker you are good to go, if you don’t that’s fine too–just use this simple tutorial over at Bella Dia for making pompoms using only your fingers. You can, of course use the little store bought pompoms too.
While you are making your pompoms put the natural straws in some very hot water to soak. This makes the straw less brittle and less likely to split when you cut them. They should sit about an hour–enough time to make a bunch of pompoms. When you are ready to use them, take them out from the water, drain and wipe them off gently.
To cut the straws, make a mark on one straw every two inches. If your yarn needle is shorter than two inches, make your straws a little shorter too–this will make things a little easier when you make the garland. Then take about 5 or 6 straws, including the one you marked, in your hand and line them up. Then cut. Some might go flying, but if they are still a little damp they shouldn’t go too far.
Now take a long piece of thread, knot it, and stick it through a pompom. It might take a few tries before you find the right spot where the knot doesn’t go right through. Then alternate pompom, straw, pompom, straw. Finish with a pompom and hide the knot in the yarn. If you want to keep going but ran out of thread, ready another needle and thread (knotted) and insert the need where the last straw and pompom meet, then just keep going.
variations
Pretty paper stars also look nice between the natural straws. Popcorn might work, dried orange slices would look nice. And I bet you can think of a bunch of other things too.
a christmas present for my lovely readers: a week of handmade ornament tutorials!
- monday: straw and pompom garland
- tuesday: paper christmas tree ornaments
- wednesday: felt dove ornament
I will be accepting advertisers on Elsie Marley starting January 2011. If you are interested in reserving a spot please email me and we can discuss the specifics! Thanks! elsiemarleyblog@gmail.com
Love your idea, I was just checking out imamgine childhood the other day adn saw these straws, now I know what they look like!
Think I will make some up soon;)
How pretty! I had the kids making some pom poms with the vague idea of using them for decorations. The only problem is that they soon tird of that, so there’s not nearly enough for a garland…
OK, I absolutely LOVE these garlands! I am now thinking of how I can eek in some time to make some of those for our very undecorated home.
What a wonderful idea and I love that it has a vintage feel. Great tutorial, thanks for sharing.
Great idea. Never thought of using pom poms like that. Looks really pretty.
Thanks for the lovely inspirational post – as always! You’ve inspired me to do a little decorating tonight while the kids are asleep so they wake up to something exciting :-)
[…] otra, es del blog de Elsie Marley y está hecha con pequeños pompones de lana y palitos de […]
What an excellent idea! White pompoms for the christmas tree!!! I love it!
this garland is amazing, meg. someday we are going to sit down together and i am going to tell you just how your creativity inspires me. ‘k?
Okay, the pompoms look awesome and I have been wanting to try making a pompom garland for a while now, but the paper star garland actually made me gasp out loud. So fun!
[…] monday: straw and pompom garland […]
Oh baby! These are so simple yet totally elegant and somehow French-looking to me. The linen color perhaps? This is a must project – thank you!
These are so fabulous! I love those straws. Perfect!
[…] First you need to soak the straws and cut them into 2inch pieces. I explained this in detail in my tutorial for a straw and pompom garland. […]
[…] STRAW AND POM POM GARLAND TUTORIAL from ELSIE MARLEY. […]
[…] decoration from Meg (USA) at elsie marley…ps. all her Christmas decorations are handmade and she has written them down for us in […]
Beautiful garland! Thanks for sharing :)
Lena.
[…] supposed to be much less trimming involved…then maybe I’ll manage to actually get some garland made before Christmas. Or maybe at least before winter’s […]
I absolutely love these tutorials. I am dying to get my hands on some of those straws, but imagination childhood is out of them. does anybody know another source?
thanks,
Sarah
sjwinward@yahoo.com
[…] besitzt Filzkugeln zu drehen, ist dies auf jeden Fall eine Alternative. Eine Pom-Pom Girlande wie hier ist fix gemacht. Eine bunte Variante ist auch schon […]
[…] Gingerbread Man Garland 2. Noel Garland 3. Pom Pom Garland 4. Photo Garland 5. Coffee Filter Garland 6. Scrap Fabric Garland 7. Dove Garland 8. Candy Garland […]
Just dropping by to let you know that I linked to this post in a round up today from the Home & Garden channel at Craft Gossip. :) This will appear in the main Craft Gossip RSS feed, on the main home page and can be found directly here
http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/9-garland-ideas-for-the-holidays/
If you would like a “featured by” button, you can grab one here!
http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/grab-a-craft-gossip-button/
Thanks for the tutorial. I just tried it out and loved it!
http://sweetathena.blogspot.com/2010/12/decorating-for-christmas.html
[…] and it is also thrifted.) You can find detailed how-tos on making various pompom garlands here, here and here. And my favorite instructions for making poms themselves is here, courtesy of HonestlyWTF. […]