Tassels are the perfect little accent to add to wood bead garlands, ornaments, etc. AND they are so easy to make! I have made tons of tassels (really…way too many tassels) and this is the easiest way to make them.
Supplies:
- yarn, lace, jute/twine, etc. You really can use any kind of thin fabric or material. For those of you asking, here are the exact products I used for my tassels (this yarn, this yarn, muslin strips, and this trim)
- scissors
- NOTE – if you want to hang the tassels from a bead garland (like I did in the pictures above) you’ll need wood beads and twine. I used a mixture of these beads from Michaels, but these beads from Amazon would work too. I bought my twine at Dollar Tree, but twine like this would work perfectly.
Disclosure: My posts may contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one of those links, you won’t pay a penny more, but I may receive a small commission, which helps me keep this DIY blog up and running, and partially supports my Coke Zero addiction. This includes links to amazon.com, because I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program.
Instructions:
Before we go through the step by step instructions there’s one important thing I want to make you aware of. There is a super easy way to make tassels if you are only using one material. I’ll put those instructions first. BUT if you are making tassels out of multiple materials, the instructions are a little bit different, so I’ll be sharing the instructions for both kinds of tassels.
Single Material Tassels
- Wrap the material (I used yarn) around an object depending on the size of the tassel you are wanting to make. You can wrap it around your hand, a book, a piece of cardboard, etc. When I use my hand I typically wrap the yarn around about 10-15 times. When I use a book I might wrap the yarn around the book more like 30 times – if the tassel is going to be longer you want to wrap it around more times so that the tassel is still nice and full.
- Pull a piece of yarn (or whatever material you are using) through the loops you just made. Make sure this piece is at least 12″ long so that you have plenty to play around with.
- Tie the piece of yarn in a tight knot. *NOTE – if you are attaching the tassel to the end of a bead garland or something else, you will want to pull the twine from the end of the bead garland through the loops of yarn. You can find those instructions here.
- Tie a piece of yarn around the loops of yarn, about an inch or so down, depending on how long your tassel is.
- Cut all of the loops to make the tassel fringe. If the ends are uneven, cut them to make them even.
- If you so desire, you can also wrap the top part of the tassel to give it a different look like the picture below.
Multiple Material Tassels
- Gather all of the materials you want to use, and cut pieces of each material to the same length. For the ones I made, I cut the pieces to be 8″ so that the tassels were about 4″ long when completed.
- Lay down a piece of yarn (or whatever material you desire) horizontally in front of you. Make sure the piece of yarn is plenty long – this will be the piece of yarn that the tassel will hang from. Place all of your materials on top of the piece of yarn, so that the yarn is in the middle of the pieces. It is important to mix the materials when laying them down. I used muslin fabric, two different kinds of yarn, and some lace. You DO NOT want to lay down all of one material, and then all of another material, and so on. If you do it that way the material you lay down first will be hidden on the inside of the tassel, and therefore you won’t be able to see it as easily. So be mindful when putting down your pieces to put down some of each material within each layer you lay down, so that it is all done in a random fashion. (That was way more explaining than I meant to do…oops lol. Hopefully you get the idea though!)
- Tie the piece of yarn (that is laying underneath the pieces) in a knot around the pieces.
- Tie another piece of yarn around the pieces, about an inch or so below the knot you just tied.
- Cut all of the pieces to make them the same length.
See? That was pretty easy right? Now you can add tassels to everything lol! I added these multiple material tassels to the bead garland hanging on my mantle, and I love how it looks!
Want to check out my most popular posts? See below!
How to Hand Knit a Chunky Blanket
Never miss a post!