How to Make & Attach Tassels
A line of dangling tassels brings an elegant touch to wide variety of clothing items and fabric housewares. As fancy as they look, however, tassels aren't complicated to make. You can use any string or cord to make your own custom tassels, then attach them to items ranging from scarves and robes to ottoman cushions and window dressings.
Things You'll Need
- Cardboard
- Embroidery floss or other decorative string
- Sewing scissor
- Sewing needle
- Thread
Instructions
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Make the Tassel
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1
Cut out a 4 inch square piece of cardboard.
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2
Wrap the string around the cardboard as if you were wrapping it on a spool. Wrap a total of about 40 times. Adjust this number depending on the thickness of your string and how you think the wrapped lengths look; each side of the cardboard will carry one half the thickness of the completed tassel.
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3
Place the wrapped cardboard flat on your work surface; this will keep the strings from falling out of place when you cut.
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4
Slide the lower blade of a pair of scissors in between the string lengths and the cardboard on one side. Face the blade towards the edge of the cardboard. Slide the blade down and cut through the lengths of string where they wrap around the edge of the cardboard. Either edge is fine.
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5
Pull the cardboard carefully away from the trimmed strings. Gather up the strings; they will be doubled-up in the middle, creating a bundle folded at the center.
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6
Take one of the strings from the bundle. Use it to tie the bundle about an inch from the fold. Double-knot the string, wrap it around the bundle and double-knot again.
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7
Repeat steps 1 to 6 for each additional tassel you want to make. Use the same number of wraps around the cardboard for each tassel to keep them consistent in thickness.
Attaching
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8
Thread a needle.
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9
Hold the top (folded edge) of the tassel up against the surface you want to attach it to.
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10
Sew the tassel in place with many short stitches. Each stitch should wrap around about four or five individual strands of string in the tassel. Run a line of stitching once across the top of the tassel, then stitch back the way you came again to secure it.
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1
Tips & Warnings
If sewing many tassels to an item (such as a fringe), pin the tassel in place with a safety pin and adjust their positioning as needed before sewing them in place permanently.
