In this tutorial, I’ll show you two different ways to make your own homemade decorative snowballs, there is a DIY no-sew snowball tutorial and a fabric snowball DIY that involves a little hand stitching.
Would you love some faux snowballs for your winter home decor? So did I. In fact, this desire stopped me right in my tracks when I was decorating my living room for winter.
I had filled a bowl with some pinecones, and it looked all right.
But I also looked a little predictable. The brown pinecones in the brown wooden bowl lacked drama.
And sometimes we need a little drama in our lives…
Well, the good kind of drama that is.
The drama that adds pizzazz and zing to our home decorating. Not the kind of drama that comes from drama queens, they can keep that to themselves thank you very much!
Anyway. That pinecone-filled bowl needed some contrast, a different texture, some softness.
In came the idea of homemade snowballs as decorative balls. And that is how it happened. The winter home decorating had to stop until these faux snowballs were created.
I spent a lovely afternoon in my craft room, coming up with ways to make fabric snowballs using only materials that I had on hand. In fact, I found two ways that both resulted in lovely faux snowballs and that were equally easy and fast. Chose the best method for your DIY snowballs based on the material you have on hand.
You’ll learn how to make these adorable homemade Christmas snowballs, both of them require the same simple materials, but one uses no sewing at all while the other needs only some very simple and straightforward hand stitching.
Making homemade fabric snowballs is an easy DIY project and so much fun. This craft can be made in less than 30 minutes, and all you will need are some fabric scraps and a few other supplies that I know you will already have. As long as you have some styrofoam balls and the right kind of fabric, you are good to go. Let me show you how I made my DIY faux snowballs and how I used them in my winter home decor.
Materials you’ll need for making fabric snowballs
- foam balls (I used 3 inch balls, alternatively you can use tennis balls too)
- white fabric scraps (I used terry cloth and knitted fabric)
- pins, sewing needle, thread
- fabric scissors
How to make scrap fabric snowballs
For the first set of faux snowballs, I used some leftover fabric from my winter scarf wreath. The knitted fabric was the perfect slightly off-white color and I liked the pattern I thought it would make for a great decorative snowball.
Choose your fabric
To make a fabric scrap snowball like this, you will need a knitted fabric that has a good stretch to it. As I said I used some scraps from a scarf, but if you have an old sweater in the right color that is perfect too. Heck, some stretchy socks would do too.
Cut your fabric to size
With some good, sharp pair of scissors cut your fabric in a round shape that is big enough that it can wrap around the styrofoam ball if you stretch it a bit. The fabric needs to meet in the middle with as little extra fabric as possible.
Don’t fuss too much about this step. It doesn’t have to be perfectly round, roundish is good enough.
Stitch your fabric around the ball
With some yarn in the right color stitch around the edge of your fabric. You can use nice, big stitches here. While you go around the circle start gathering the fabric so it starts to form a pocket.
Insert your styrofoam ball and pull your yarn as tight as you can, closing the gap.
Close the fabric around the ball with a few knots. Don’t cut off the needle and thread just yet, you’ll need them for the last step.
Make your fabric snowball nice and round.
Finish your DIY snowball by stitching back and forth over the bulk of the raveled edge. Stitch and pull until your homemade snowball is as round as you can get it.
Again no need to fuss too much. Knitted fabric is very forgiving and remember that real snowballs aren’t perfectly round either.
Finish with a couple of tight knots and trim off any stray bits of fabric or strands of thread.
Done!
But what if you don’t have any knit fabric that could be turned into fake snowballs?
No worries, maybe my second no-sew diy snowballs will be perfect for you.
More ideas for DIY decorative Balls
<<<< How to make decorative glass fishing floats >>>>
<<<< How to make pretty moss balls >>>>
How to make no-sew fabric snowballs
After I made a couple of my stretchy fabric snowballs, I decided to try something different.
I was hoping for some real, bright white snowballs too.
That’s when I remembered an old white bathroom towel that was in my craft stash. It was discarded because of a hole, and instead of throwing it away as a normal person does, this crafty chick had squirreled it away. Good thing that I did!
The best fabric for a no-sew homemade snowball
The white terrycloth fabric was perfect for another version of my DIY snowballs. When you search for tutorials on how to cover balls with fabric, you’ll find all kinds of tutorials that involve cutting a pattern and sewing bits together, or alternatively, that simply wrap strips of fabric around a ball for a vintage effect.
Both ways didn’t fit my goals of quick and easy while looking like a snowball as much as possible.
So I came up with a third way that combines a bit of both and that was by far the easiest way to make a faux snowball.
Terrycloth fabric has a bit of texture to it, that makes it perfect for creating a DIY snowball. It also is fairly forgiving in regards to fraying when cut (as long as you don’t handle it too much). And it usually has at least a little stretch.
I used all off those qualities of my towel fabric to my advantage.
First cut a few strips of fabric
I started making my snowball by cutting two strips of fabric. One that covered the circumference of the ball and the other that crossed over on one side and just touched the other side. Make sure you give the fabric a good stretch so it sits tightly around the ball
I simply used sewing pins to fasten the fabric to the styrofoam. Really press the pin into the ball until it nearly disappears into the texture of the fabric. If you don’t have sewing pins you could do this with a hot glue gun too (just don’t burn your fingers), I think it would be about just as fast and easy.
Just two strips of fabric covered nearly the complete ball.
Finish your DIY snowball by cutting some patterned bits of fabric
To finish up my fabric snowball I cut out some shaped pieces of fabric. Simply eyeball how long and wide of a strip of fabric you’ll need, and then snip away the corners.
Again use pins to attach the fabric to the ball. You will need only little bits of fabric so don’t worry if you have to cut a new and better piece from time to time. You still will not be wasting a lot of material if you don’t get it right right away.
Hmm. I really like this version of my homemade snowballs too.
Decorating with indoor snowballs in your winter home
So now what!
We had a fun 30 minutes playing with fabric in our craft room. What shall we do with our faux snowballs now?
Well, let’s decorate of course.
These decorative balls are so easy to use. Just place them in a bowl or bucket with some bits and pieces and you are done. For this little winter centerpiece, I added pinecones, a faux antler, and some decorative thingamajigs.
I am loving the contrast between the white snowballs and the brown pinecones. This is such an easy winter decoration. Speaking of winter decorations. Want to see how I decorate my living room in winter to create a cozy winter home? Good just click that link.
Marianne Songbird is the founder of Songbird, where she hopes to inspire everyone to create a home they love, one DIY project at a time. She shares anything from craft ideas to home decor inspiration and from DIY projects to decorating hacks. Originally from the Netherlands Marianne and her husband Lex are currently renovating a 250-year-old farmhouse in Germany.
Lori G says
Love the contrast too! Great idea.
Marianne@Songbird says
Hi Lori,
Sorry for the late reply.
I am happy you like me little project. And thank you for being a faithful commenter on my blog. Not many people leave comments anymore, so sometimes it feels as if I am blogging in a void. It’s nice when people let me know they like something I did and maybe even felt inspired by it. It’s my reason for doing this after all.