Pom Pom Fish
These pom pom fish are soooo cute!! Best of all, this colourful fish craft is also super easy and fun to make. All you need is your hand to make a pom pom – no special tools required!
Print out our free template and trace the fins, tail, and mouth, or you can create your own shapes. These soft and fluffy fish are so bright and cheerful, you’ll want to make a whole school of them!
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How to Make a Pom Pom Fish
Materials:
- Colourful yarn
- Felt(to match yarn colours)
- 2Large googly eyes(15 mm)
- Free Printable Pom Pom Fish template
Check Out The Video Tutorial:
Instructions:
Step 1: Find what you need
- Gather your supplies and materials.
Step 2: Wrap yarn around your fingers
- Choose your first colour of yarn. This will become the front, middle, and back of your fish.Cut a piece of yarn about 12 inches long and slide it between your middle and index finger.
- Wrap the same colour of yarn (orange, for us) around three of your fingers 60 times. Cut the yarn off from the ball. (Children may need to wrap the yarn around 4 of their fingers to make the same size pom pom).
- Choose a second colour of yarn (blue, for us) and wrap it around your fingers 30 times, beside the first colour. Again, cut it off.
- Go back to colour 1 (orange) and wrap it around your fingers 40 times before cutting it.
- Wrap colour 2 (blue) around your fingers 30 times before cutting it.
- Finally, wrap colour 1 (orange) around your fingers 40 times and cut it off from the ball.
Step 3: Form the pom pom
- Tie the 12 inch piece of yarn around the wrapped yarn and then carefully slide the yarn bundle off your hand.Now pull the yarn tight and tie it in a double knot around the center of the bundle.
- Using sharp scissors (or fabric scissors), cut through the loops of yarn to create a rough pom pom shape.
- Give the pom pom a “haircut”, trimming and shaping it until it’s a nice, even ball shape.
Step 4: Cut and attach the fish’s fins, tail, and mouth
- Print out the pom pom fish template (link in the list of supplies above) and cut out all the pieces.
- Trace the fins, tail, and mouth onto felt and then cut out these pieces.
- To attach the fish’s fins you’ll need to separate the yarn to create a little trench for the felt to slide into – otherwise the pieces will not stay in place.Choose the top of your pom pom fish and do this along the center.
- Add hot glue to both sides of the dorsal (top) fin, along the straight edge.
- Place the dorsal fin in the little trench you made and then press the yarn back together to glue the fin in place.
- Use the same method to attach the fish’s tail at the back, just below the dorsal fin.
- Attach the pectoral (side) fins on either side of the fish, roughly in the center. Then add the fish’s mouth to the front center.
- Use more hot glue to add googly eyes to the front of the fish, above the mouth.
- Your pom pom fish is complete!
Helpful Tip:
- Experiment with different colour combinations, because fish come in all the colours of the rainbow. You could even make a pom pom fish with 3 or 4 colours!
Download our free pom pom fish template:
Click on the link below to download our free, printable pom pom fish template! The PDF file will open in a new window. Then simply print the template onto regular 8.5 x 11 (letter size) paper.
>>> Pom Pom Fish Template <<<
Do I need a pom pom maker to make a pom pom fish?
You definitely don’t need to buy a special tool to make a pom pom. We like to avoid using extra gadgets if possible, and you can make an awesome pom pom using just your hand!
If you like to keep both hands free, you can definitely buy a plastic pom pom maker from a craft store like Michaels or on Amazon. Or you can cut a rectangle out of cardboard and wrap your yarn around the cardboard instead of your fingers.
What type of yarn is best for making pom pom fish?
We used a medium weight acrylic yarn (Craft Smart yarn from Michaels) and it worked really well! Acrylic yarn is nice for making pom poms because it doesn’t split at the end like cotton yarn does.
Chunky yarn is also a great option for making pom poms, because you only have to wrap the yarn around your fingers half as many times!
What else can I use to decorate the pom pom fish?
Instead of googly eyes, glue black beads or buttons for the fishy’s eyes! And if you don’t have felt, try using a craft foam sheet to make the fins, tail, and mouth. You could even cut and bend pipe cleaners to make these parts!
These fish pom pom are soft, fluffy, and a lot of fun to play with! Add these fish to a garland or mobile, or use a shoe box to create an ocean diorama to put them on display. So fun!
Here’s even more pom pom craft ideas:
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
Where to buy:
You can purchase Low-Mess Crafts for Kids from Amazon, or wherever books are sold:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Amazon Canada
