Introduction: PomPom Luggage Identifiers

About: What you WILL find in my Instructables: food, crafts, crochet, foraging, and much more. What you WON'T find in my Instructables: heavy machinery, tech-related projects (I'm just not very good with computers :(…

Because let's face it, sometimes we pick up the wrong luggage from the conveyor belt at baggage claim. I'd love a quick and adorable way to spot my luggage and being a maker, I decided to recreate it instead of paying 6 dollars at the container store, sorry container store, I swear I still love you!

These are made from old t-shirts, which means they're good up cycling and can be as customized as you like!

Step 1: Materials

  • Old T-shirts
  • Scissors (nice and sharp for cutting fabric)
  • Hot glue gun
  • Elastic
  • Snap Fasteners
  • Fabric paint (optional)

Step 2: Make Some T-shirt Yarn (Pt 1)

1. Find those old t shirts that you don't wear or don't like, and cut off the bottom waist hem

2. Then cut across the part under the sleeves, you'll end up with a rectangle of fabric (the torso of the shirt)

3. Take the long side of the shirt and fold it towards the other long side, leaving about 1 inch of fabric

4. Cut strips of about 1/2" width but don't cut through the extra inch we left off

Step 3: T Shirt Yarn (Pt. 2)

1. Unfold everything and you should have a row of longer strips like the first pic

2. Open the loop and stick something in to hold it in place (like an arm but I won't take responsibility for cuts etc. )

3. Start by cutting the end strip off so you have the starting point of your yarn

4. Cut diagonally from one strip to the other (This is hard to explain, forgive me and try to rely on the pictures)

5. You should end up with a long continuous piece of yarn

Step 4: Making the Pompom

Ignore the differences in color of yarn, I took the photos in a weird order when I made the project but the steps are the same

1. Wrap a long piece of your t-shirt yarn around your hand, the more you wrap it the bigger the pom pom will be so decide how big you want it (consider the size of your luggage), cut the rest off.

2. Remove the wrapped yarn and and cut a strand from your leftover yarn (you WILL have leftover). Then take a piece of elastic and measure the handle of your suitcase and decide how much to cut off.

3. Place the elastic on the wrapped bundle and then, with your strand, tie the elastic to the bundle and secure everything together tightly

4. Cut the loops at both ends of the bundles to create the pom pom

5. Hot glue the elastic to the strand that you tied around it.

NOTE: This step is a bit difficult to explain but hopefully the pictures are helpful

Seperate note :): These pom poms are easy to make and great dog toys (just omit the elastic)

Step 5: Adding the Snap Fastener

Hot glue the fasteners to either end of the elastic, and for security I sewed them in and then re glued everything in ( a little extra I admit)

Step 6: You're Done!

I didn't include a step since I sorta...failed, but my intentions were to create a mulit-colored pom pom by fabric painting a strand of yarn before turning it into a pom pom, it didn't turn out pretty so I gave up lol. The white one is also easy to spot though! Experiment using multiple strands of different colored t shirts, or just 1 really colorful t shirt (think tie die), this project is flexible :)

Not a hard project at all! If you need further instruction on how to make the t shirt yarn, shoot me a message through pms, but also check these instructables as well: T shirt yarn, T Shirt Yarn 2

Attach the pom to the handle of your suitcase, but also to backpacks, lunch bags, or anything in need of identification or a pop of color!

Travel Contest 2017

Participated in the
Travel Contest 2017

Invention Challenge 2017

Participated in the
Invention Challenge 2017