Year of the Pig…Pom

Happy Lunar New Year!

2019 is the Year of the Pig in the Chinese zodiac, so to celebrate I made myself a cute pig pompom! Or as I like to call it….a Pig Pom.

I’m happy to report that I made this project using only items in my stash, so it doesn’t require too many supplies:

• Pink Yarn
• Preferred Pompom making tool (I used Loome)
• Pink felt (2 tones if possible)
• Black felt (I used grey)
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun or craft glue
• Tapestry needle (optional)

Step 1: Make your pompom!

There are quite a few ways you can make a pompom, all of which involve winding your yarn around a tool, tying all of it together with string, cutting the loops open, and then trimming down to resemble a sphere.

Step 2: Create the face.

You really only need a tiny bit of felt, so if you have scraps this is the perfect project! To make the ears you start with the light pink felt and make a general triangle shape, curving the sides to resemble a pig ear. You will make the same shape, but smaller, with the darker pink felt for the inner ear.

For the snout use the darker pink felt to make an elongated circle, or you can start with a rectangle and round out the corners. Then you take the light pink felt and make two small ovals. The eyes will be two small circles in either black or charcoal felt.

This only shows the first layer and not the inner layer of the ears or the nostrils on the snout. I also used fine tip scissors to facilitate cutting out the smaller shapes.

Step 3: Layer the dark and light pink pieces.

Take the small pink ovals and glue them to the dark pink snout and let dry. For the ears you’ll want to take the inner/dark pink part and glue them to the larger/lighter pink pieces. After they dry, place a dab of glue on the bottom border and pinch closed to create the 3D ear shape.

Step 4: Glue them onto your Pig Pom!

NOTE: if you want to be able to hang your pompom on something, do this BEFORE gluing the face on! This is where the optional tapestry needle comes in handy. Take some yarn or string, and with the needle you will slowly take it through the body of the pompom and back out. Make sure you do this slowly so that you don’t pull out any strings from the pompom.

You can use your Pig Pom as a charm to hang on your door, as a keychain, on a headband or pin, or just to sit on your desk as you enjoy this Year of the Pig!