DIY Wool Dryer Balls

Homemade gifts are so much more personal, giving something that is also useful makes it an even better gift. If you have ever wanted to try making your own Homemade Wool Dryer Balls now is a great time, grab your kids and some wool yarn and make up several batches of wool dryer balls. Of course, you will want to keep some for your own dryer.

Making homemade dryer balls is a simple project that even preschoolers can help with yet it comes out looking like a store-bought gift. Add the dryer balls to a pretty container, add a nice essential oil to scent the balls and you have a wonderful gift for grandma, aunts, teachers, or anyone else on your list.

Why use Homemade Wool Dryer Balls?

Wool dryer balls can cut your drying time by as much as 25 %. They also reduce static electricity. Dryer balls can be used to replace costly and chemical-laden liquid fabric softener or dryer sheets.

Homemade Wool Dryer Balls Tutorial

First, head to the craft store and let your kids pick out a pretty 100% wool yarn, or you can do like we did and let technology and the UPS guy help you out. I pulled up the 100% wool yarns on Amazon and let my daughter pick what color she wanted to make for grandma, I thought she would have chosen a bright color but she went with this black, cream, and grey wool yarn combo and it turned out lovely.

Items Needed:

100% wool yarn
Scissors
Nylons
…and some willing little hands

Directions:

Wrap yarn around your 4 fingers like this about 10 times.
Slide the loops off your hand and wrap yarn around the center of your loops a few times to create a bow.
Fold your bow in half and just keep wrapping, pull yarn tightly as you go in different directions with every few wraps until your ball gets bigger and bigger.
At the end take the eraser end of a pencil and press the end of the yarn as far in as you can. Even if your child wraps loosely and ends up with loops and bumps sticking out like above, it’s a pretty easy fix, as long as at the end you go over it a few times with tighter wraps, this is the same ball that I went over just a few times.
Cut the one leg off a pair of nylons and drop one ball into the toe, tie off right above it, add another ball, tie again, repeat until you are done.
To make the wool balls “melt” together, this is called felting, you need to wash them in HOT water and dry on high heat until they are dried throughout. Toss them in with a load of towels or sheets that need a hot water, dry until they feel dry throughout.
Cut each section open and peel the dryer ball out, it will stick a bit. Your fibers should be melded together now and the ball will be slightly fuzzy.

Your wool dryer balls are ready to use, just keep them in the dryer with each load. To scent your homemade wool dryer balls add a few drops of essential oil to each one every few loads.

To gift the homemade dryer balls, put them in a basket or pail. Add a gift tag and some clothespins. You can also add a bottle of essential oil if you wish.