Recycle plastic bags to make pompoms

Today I am posting a very easy to project that you can make during lock down. All you need are plastic bags, scissors, cardboard or a ‘pom pom maker’ and string. I am not suggesting for one moment that you waste usable plastic bags, but once they are no longer viable they can be cut into strips to make pom poms. Last year I created this project for 19 magazine’s e-zeen. I used a shop bought pom pom maker but you can just as easily, and obviously much cheaper, cut two discs from cardboard and wind the plastic ‘yarn’ round them.

Cut the bag into a continuous piece of yarn by cutting 1cm wide lengths. You will have a bit of a step when you come to the edge of the bag, but that way you don’t have short strips that you have to knot together.

Open up the pom pom maker and wind the plastic yarn round it, until it is full.

Close up the pom pom maker and then cut through the outer circle, be very careful to hold the pieces in place as they can fall out of the pom pm maker very easily.

Take a piece of yarn and follow the gap that you just cut. Tie the two ends together and fluff out the pom pom.

We used our Pom poms to decorate a basket, but you could use them to decorate anything. Have fun creating crafting and recycling.

TIP to make a CARDBOARD Pom pom maker

Draw round a small saucer or a large roll of tape onto the card to create a circle. Use something like an eggcup and draw round it to make a circle in the center. Cut out the two cardboard discs, with a hole in the centre. Cut the plastic bags into strips. Place one cardboard disc on top of the other and then start to wind the plastic strips round and through the two circles as in the picture.

Carry on until the whole of the cardboard is covered. The more strips you add the fluffier the pom pom will be.