A lot of people have brought it to my attention that my dryer balls are ‘too bouncy’ to be 100% wool. If you were to say this to me in person, I’d invite you to cut one in half and see for yourself. I would also consider it to be a waste of the hard work I put into my dryer balls. The halved ball, on the other hand, I would be able to recycle into new dryer balls.

I don’t like to share my process or the processes my art / craft goes through to get from point A to point B. It’s necessary for a dryer ball to have some bounce in it to bounce its way around the clothes dryer. It’s this bouncing action that is what actually softens the clothes as they’re being propelled around the inside of the clothes dryer.

I start out with about an ounce of clean wool and wool scraps. I prefer to work with loose, washed wool because it’s easier to compress by hand than a carded batt of wool.

I compress or squeeze the wool tightly in my hand until it’s firm enough to start a binding yarn. The binding yarn will aid in holding the wool together as you wrap the yarn around it while squeezing the ball tighter.

I keep adding more wool until the ball is almost 2.25 inches (regular sized dryer ball) to 3 inches in diameter (large sized dryer ball). I begin by pushing the needle felting tool into the wool ball and keep doing this while rotating the ball around and around.  I continue to needle felt it into a nice, firm, round ball until it meets my expectations for bounce and…..

VOILA!! A dryer ball ready to be dressed up (covered with dyed wool, silk and/or decorative wool)!

I’ve not bought any dryer sheets or fabric softeners for the past 4 years. Considering that I used to go through a box of 120 count dryer sheets every 3 months, I’d say that I’ve saved roughly $55 over the past 4 years (more $$$ now, since 14 years have passed) and that’s not bad for a small family.

On a side note: dryer balls are strictly fabric softeners. They do nothing to remove static electricity and they’re unscented. Most people find adding a few drops of clear, scented essential oils beneficial for adding a pleasant scent to their laundry. Only a dehumidifier can do that properly, unless you live where there’s high humidity.

Save some money and buy a set of dryer balls for your dryer today at my Etsy shop!!

Here are some photos of recent dryer balls: