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How To Make Wool Dryer Balls

By Maura in Natural Homemade Ideas

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Did you know that wool dryer balls can decrease drying time? That’s right; this simple DIY project can help reduce your electric bill! Check out this simple tutorial for how to make homemade Wool Dryer Balls. It’s so easy, the kids can help! this idea now...

Today I’m going to show you how to make wool dryer balls.  Wool dryer balls are very handy because they help separate your clothing while drying. With increased aeration, more hot air reaches a larger surface area of the fabric, making it faster and more efficient to dry your clothes. Since you’ll speed up your laundry drying time, you’ll save money on your electric bill too!

While tennis balls work similarly, I prefer wool because I like using natural fibers and not having to wonder about if the plastic/rubber chemicals from the tennis balls are being added to my family’s clothing.

This tutorial on how to make wool dryer balls is actually quite fun and easy; it’s a great DIY for the kids to help too! Not only will they enjoy making the wool dryer balls, my 2 year old loves finding them in my basket of clothes that I’m folding and runs to return them to the dryer for the next load!

Did you know that wool dryer balls can decrease drying time? That’s right; this simple DIY project can help reduce your electric bill! Check out this simple tutorial for how to make homemade Wool Dryer Balls. It’s so easy, the kids can help!Materials needed:

  • yarn
  • carded wool
  • knee high stockings
  • dish soap
  • warm water
  • essential oil of your choice, optional (I love lavender)

yarn balls

How to make wool dryer balls:

You will want to start by getting some yarn (any color or type) and winding it into about 2 inches in diameter balls.  This will serve as the core of the wool ball.  Yarn is much cheaper than wool, so this is an inexpensive way to put  some bulk into your wool ball.  Plus the yarn just makes for a denser core, which in turn will help separate your clothes more easily in the dryer.

yarn ball 2

When you get your carded wool, you should see that the fibers are going in generally one direction.  You will want to pull apart a layer and rip off an approximate 6 inch by 3 inch strip of wool. Start with one strip of wool going horizontal and tightly wrap the wool around the yarn ball.

wool dryer ball

Then you will do this again, but have the strip of wool going the other way so that the wool fibers crisscross each other. Again, wrap the wool tightly into a ball.  It won’t be perfectly round – but that’s ok.  It does not need to be at this point.

wool dryer ball 2

Wrap 4 or 5 “strips” of wool around the yarn ball, with each strip going in the opposite direction.  Again, it does not need to be in a perfect circle at this point, but you do want to try and make sure that the same amount of wool is evenly wrapped around the yarn ball core.

wool dryer ball 3

Then you will want to get a knee high stocking (or an old pair of stockings with a run; just trim off from the ankle down) and put the wool ball in the stocking.  This will help hold the shape during the felting process.

wool dryer ball 4

Here’s the fun part – felting!  All you have to do is put a large amount of dish soap on the wool ball.  Wet it down, and then squeeze and kneed the soapy wool ball like you would dough for a few minutes. When the wool is nice and sudsy, wet, and squished together, rinse it out and shape it the best you can into a ball.

wool dryer ball 5

After you get them into this round shape, take them out of the knee high stockings, and put them in the dryer for about 45 minutes on high.  The dryer shrinks the wool and completes the felting process.  It also smoothes out the wool balls into almost perfectly round balls!

Be sure to take the wool balls out of the knee high stockings before putting them in the dryer or the wool will felt to the stockings, making it very difficult to remove the stockings.  (Yes, I learned this the hard way!) 

essential oil pdf download for moms on blue background

See how smooth my balls turned out?

Did you know that wool dryer balls can decrease drying time? That’s right; this simple DIY project can help reduce your electric bill! Check out this simple tutorial for how to make homemade Wool Dryer Balls. It’s so easy, the kids can help!

If you want to add some natural scent to your laundry, have a bottle of your favorite essential oil near by and put a few drops on each wool dryer ball before you add them to your load.  This will freshen your load, while you speed up your drying time!

Looking for more ways to use essential oils around the house?

  • Homemade Foaming Liquid Hand Soap
  • Easy Lavender Goat Milk Soap Recipe
  • All Natural Homemade Shampoo for Kids
  • All Natural Homemade Cleaner with Castile Soap

Dear mom, I have so much more I’d love to share with you…

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    Filed Under: Natural Homemade Ideas, Natural Living Published on January 21, 2016

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    About Maura

    Maura, her husband and 2 daughters live in upstate NY. She is a former high school biology teacher turned into a work at home mom. She loves to have fun and find a great deal. As well as writing for Living Well Mom, she shares her frugal tips and DIY projects on happydealhappyday.com.

    Comments

    1. Ladena says

      January 21, 2016 at 4:18 pm

      Wow! These turned out so well. I have never thought of making my own wool dryer balls. Thanks for the step by step instructions. I think I’ll have to try making them!

      Reply
    2. Sharon says

      January 21, 2016 at 8:54 pm

      I’ve never used the wool dryer balls and have been curious about using them. I didn’t realize you could make your own. This is definitely something I want to try!

      Reply
    3. Chrysa says

      January 21, 2016 at 11:18 pm

      I love this! I have heard great things about wool dryer balls, but didn’t realize you could make them yourself. I want to try this!

      Reply
    4. Tammilee Tips says

      January 22, 2016 at 12:18 am

      I have heard great things about Wool balls before!!! I had no idea that you could make these instead of just buying them.

      Reply
    5. Aubrey says

      January 22, 2016 at 12:36 am

      These look fun. Not to mention that they would be very handy. I didn’t know of all the benefits.

      Reply
    6. Maura says

      January 24, 2016 at 7:43 am

      When you order your wool, you will most likely have some left over after you are done making wool balls for yourself. But you will see how fun it is to make them, so go ahead and use up all your wool and hand out your wool balls to your friends as practical handmade gifts! 🙂

      Reply
    7. Karen says

      July 12, 2017 at 7:01 pm

      is the carded wool you used here, scoured? i am looking on amazon and most of the wool is scoured carded wool or carded scoured wool.

      also, does it matter if the wool is not white?

      Reply
      • Maura says

        July 13, 2017 at 6:23 am

        scoured and carded is fine – it just means its been cleaned and combed off of the sheep. Wool does not need to be white! Any color dryer ball will work just as well at bouncing around your clothes for faster drying!

        Reply
    8. Lea says

      September 3, 2017 at 7:16 pm

      I really like you method. It’s hard to find 100% wool yarn and it can be pricey. Using a normal, cheaper yarn inside is a great idea! Plus I happen to have these specific materials already at home. I haven’t made the dyer balls yet, but thanks to your tutorial I’m very excited to get started. Thank you!

      Reply
      • Maura says

        September 4, 2017 at 12:52 pm

        Enjoy and good luck!

        Reply
    9. Heidi says

      October 16, 2017 at 3:59 pm

      I’m glad to see you can use cheap yarn in the middle. I’ve hesitated to do this because 100% wool is more expensive, but this method lets me use up my scrap yarn in the middle. Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
    10. Judy says

      December 19, 2017 at 3:26 pm

      I hav alot of static cling goin on with my clothes when they for out f the dryer,what can I do to stop that. Thank you

      Reply
      • Maura says

        December 20, 2017 at 8:22 am

        Add a safety pin to your wool balls and see if that helps!

        Reply
        • mindy says

          March 4, 2018 at 5:31 am

          what does the safety pin do – to help ???

          Reply
          • Maura says

            March 4, 2018 at 6:50 am

            It helps reduce static electricity that builds up in the dryer.

            Reply
    11. Cheryl says

      December 21, 2017 at 10:49 pm

      I know lavender is good for calming. What other essential oil scents are good for calming, specifically persons succeeding from PTSD? I want to make a gift for someone succeeding from PTSD.

      Also, we purchased wool dryer balls at a craft show this past summer. How long do they last before needing to be replaced? I recall the crafter saying use them 3 or 4 months then replace them. Is this correct? Or was she trying to sell more product?

      Reply
      • Maura says

        January 1, 2018 at 2:01 pm

        I don’t know oils specifically for PTSD, but I do know chamomile is calming. As for how long dryer balls last – I’ve used mine for almost 2 years and don’t see them wearing out any time soon!

        Reply
    12. Sandy says

      April 25, 2018 at 9:06 pm

      Hello,
      Thanks so much for your tutorial.
      I am wondering what temperature you use with the dish soap when hand felting them and also for the rinsong off of the suds.

      Thanks!!

      Reply
    13. Helen Stephenson says

      June 20, 2018 at 6:01 pm

      I have a lot of very old alpaca fleece. Would this work?

      Reply
    14. Laurie says

      December 10, 2018 at 2:45 pm

      What does soaping it up do? Soap is hard to get entirely out of the ball. My balls didn’t turn out like yours. Mine were “hairy”. I used 100% carded wool

      Reply
      • Lorraine says

        January 2, 2019 at 5:35 pm

        Oh i read your comment did she ever reply?? plus i think your the only one who made them, still wondering why no reply

        Reply

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