Easy DIY Wool Dryer Balls

Working towards reducing chemicals in your home? These easy DIY wool dryer balls are an awesome way to reduce chemicals when you do your laundry!

These easy DIY wool dryer balls are fabulous! Put a bunch of these wooly wonders in your dryer and reap all the benefits–without the use of fabric softeners. Wool dryer balls will take the static out of your clothes, taking the place of dryer sheets, and decrease the time it takes for your laundry to dry.

If you like for your laundry to be scented you can put a few drops of your favorite essential oil right on the ball and toss it in with your drying clothes.

Wool dryer balls can cost you up to $10 each. If that’s more than you’re willing to spend then you can easily make your own for around $2.50 a piece using these simple instructions for easy DIY wool dryer balls.

I think it’s worth noting, though, if you’re allergic to wool this is probably not going to work for you, so you might alpaca (which works great and acts just like wool) or even cotton yarn (although the felting process won’t produce the same result as with wool or even alpaca yarn). You just need a ball that is hefty and able to break up lumps in your load of laundry–they can even be plastic, as long as they’re dryer-safe.

A lot of people prefer to use natural fibers instead of synthetic, but if you have allergies, you have allergies…so make it work for you. Heck, you can even use tennis balls to reduce static in each dryer load, if you’re just in that kind of spot.

Let’s get on to making our felted balls though.

What You Need to MakeEasy DIY Wool Dryer Balls

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• 100% Wool Yarn
• Scissors
• Yarn Needle
• Nylon Stockings
• Washing Machine
• Laundry Soap

How to Make Easy DIY Wool Dryer Balls

Step 1

Loosely wrap the yarn into large balls. It is very important to wind the balls loosely because that allows the fibers to felt more easily in the fourth step. The exact size of the ball is not important but you want to err on the large size because small wool balls can get lost in laundry much more easily than larger ones.

Step 2

Once your yarn ball has reached a proper size, cut the yarn leaving a tail that is a few inches long. Thread that tail onto your yarn needle (or you can even use a crochet hook if you want) and weave the tail back through the ball several times to lock the end in place. Cut any remaining tail yarn flush with the ball.

Step 3

Slide the yarn ball all the way to the toe of the nylon stocking. Knot the stocking so that the first yarn ball is completely surrounded by stocking. Slide the next yarn ball in as far as it will go and tie another knot. Continue in this fashion until all yarn balls are in stocking cocoons.

Step 4

Hot wash the worm of wool balls in very hot wash cycle with your regular laundry soap. You can wash the balls with your regular laundry so you’re not wasting water or electricity. Send the balls through several wash and dry cycles with your regular laundry for best results. The hot water and the soap will cause the wool to felt onto itself meaning that the yarn ball will not unravel.

Cut the stocking away from the balls. If the wool doesn’t look completely felted simply tie the balls back into another stocking as in step 3 and repeat step 4. Once the wool balls are completely felted you can start using them in your dryer.

I love using my Easy DIY Wool Dryer Balls! I add a few drops of lavender or lemon and our laundry comes out of the dryer smelling amazing!!