Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Harry Potter Party: Pygmy Puffs


Pygmy Puffs are the adorable pets that the Weasley twins stocked in their joke shop. I think of them as the wizard equivalent of a hamster crossed with a baby hedgehog. They aren't actually crucial to the plot of a typical Harry Potter story, since they don't cast spells or taste good or sort anybody into any kind of magical fraternity/sorority but they are somewhat cute and fluffy and have a normalizing effect on an otherwise otherwordly boarding school experience. I mean, the most evil villain in the history of the known universe was at large and declaring war on a world of innocents, but aw, look! Fred and George just got these fluffballs in! Do you want the pink or the purple?

Obviously Emily had to have them at her party

Rather than hand everyone a ready-to-swoon Pygmy Puff, however, she thought her guests might have more fun making their own. So she made a bunch of two-tone pink and purple pompoms, very similar to the kind we made for Kate's bunny party some years ago,

and bought white pompoms from the craft store - 1.5" for the heads and 1/2" ones for the feet, to make a kit.

This is what you need to make one Pygmy Puff:
  • one large pom pom (pink or purple) for the body
  • one 1.5" white pom pom for the head
  • four 1/2" white pom poms for the feet
  • two small black circles of felt (about 1/4" diameter) for eyes
  • one small pink bead for the nose
  • two small white felt triangles for eyes
along with glue (we used Tacky glue).

Emily printed out joke shop labels, turned them into stickers

and stuck them on regular zip top sandwich bags. Everything but the body pom pom went into that zip top bag. 

When guests came to "buy" their Pygmy Puff kit, they got to pick out a pom pom from a basket,

and pick up a zip top bag of supplies.

During the activity, we set out saucers of Tacky glue and Q-tips (cotton buds). We've learned from experience that this communal-glue method was much better than passing around bottles of glue for guests to take turns.

Finished Pygmy Puff!



12 comments:

  1. Those are so cute!
    -MayravB

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  2. Oh they are adorable. I have really been enjoying this series and am wowed by Emily's skill, dedication and creativity!

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  3. Emma LOVES your pygmy puffs! I have yet to master pom pom making. Emma and I will have to work on that over the next couple of weeks.

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  4. How do you make even and consistent tiny felt circles? I've screwed up... lots of them.

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    1. Anonymous: I usually hand-cut them. It takes a LOT of patience, and I can't tell you how many I've made uncircular. Also they are almost always not even in each pair of eyes. One thing you can do is get a hole punch (like the sort for punching ring-binder paper holes - that works for wool felt (not acrylic) very well, especially if it's a new punch and you reserve it for fabric only (and not use it for paper as well). We did this for this project.

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    2. Brilliant, thank you! I have to tell you, your blog is beyond awesome- last year we combined several posts/crafts/ideas for my daughter's birthday, and we had a fantastic time. When she saw Emily's Potter party she declared that that's this year's theme... which is why we are starting NOW for a mid-May party. x LM

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  5. Thanks so much for the idea!😄😄

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  7. These are amazing. My son wants me to make them for his upcoming HP birthday party. The problem is, I can't figure out how to make my pom poms puffy enough! What yarn do you use to get them so full? The first one I tried was too thin and the second was fluffier, but it totally fell apart when I cut it. Thanks!

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    1. Jessica, I used bulky (or superbulky) yarn. On the skein/ball, it looked like it had a diameter of 1/4". What about trying a couple of things: one, wind the pompom forms really full, like till they're almost unable to hold more loops. Two, when you tie the middle of the pompom, tie it really tight, then wind the ends of those strings around the middles one more time and tie a second, even tighter knot. Don't cut off the trailing ends of the string yet - they're helpful for holding the pompom while you trim it to shape. Cut off the long trailing yarn right at the end, after the pompom is shaped. Hope this helps!

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    2. I got super bulky yarn made out of wool and it worked so much better! Thank you for the tip!

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    3. Hurrah! So glad it worked, Jessica! Hope your Potter Party is an absolute blast!

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