How To Make Fabric Snowballs

Would you love some faux snowballs for your winter home decor? So did I.

I came up with 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.

You’ll learn how to make these adorable homemade Christmas snowballs, there are two types 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

I wanted some nice, bright white faux snowballs.

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 white terrycloth fabric was perfect for this 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.

Check out the post to see how I made the snowballs using knit fabric.

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.