This posting is about:

“how to make fast and easy tassels…”
…at the end of a cord.

Yes, there is a very fast and rather easy way to make this cute small tassels which you can see at the picture underneath:

…and here a description of what you need and how you can make them:

Lets start with a list of what you need:

Well, this tassels are the most easy tassels I can imagine but still we have some steps to go through to make them. For this step you will need:

• some wool thread for the tassel (and maybe also for the wrapping)
• a cord to which you want to attach it
• an embroidery or sewing needle (one you can pass 2 threads of your wool thread through the eye)
• a pair of good scissors

And now – step-by-step – how you can make them:

First you need some threads for the tassel. The easiest way is to wrap enough thread around your fingers and to cut through this wrapped threads at one point to get a nice pile of threads you can turn into a tassel – as you can see at the next big picture underneath.

Depending on how long you want your tassel to be you can use 2 or more fingers. I recommend to always make them at least a little bit longer than you think you will need them. Thread can always be cut away but it’s not possible to add more if you think that they are too short.

Just wrap your thread around your fingers. If you are making more than one tassel and want them to look similar, you should count how often you wrap around your fingers – you can use this count also for the other tassels – this way they will get a very similar look.

For the tassel you can see at the picture on the left side I went 40 times around two of my fingers before I cut through them. That makes a pile of 40 threads to work with.

40 might sound a lot to you but I think it just looks right – this tassels would look rather poor with just 30 threads – I tried it, the result was not very appealing.

Ok, now we have a small pile of threads and a cord (for the closing of our needle roll). Prepare a loop as if you would like to make a knot – as shown on the picture above.

Put your threads through the loop as you can see on the picture above and then tighten your loop towards the knot of your cord as you can see on the picture underneath. Try to get your loop with your threads as close as possible to your knot.

Now you can make two things for the wrapping:

1. you can tie up a new thread in a different color to your threads of your cord from the needle-roll (it should be as close as possible to the knot of your cord that you can hide its end inside)
2. you can separate one of the longer threads of the right color from the cord from the needle-roll and make the wrapping with it

I worked with possibility number 2 – I separated one thread from the cord from the other threads before I pulled the threads for the tassel down and over the knot and the threads of the cord from the needle-roll. Well, this step is much simpler than it sounds like as you can see at the picture underneath:

…and a close up for you:

Now make your first “wrap”/”loop” – and at the end of the loop you go with your thread through the loop again as you can see on the picture underneath:

Actually this is very similar to the loop for the knot we started with – just with the difference that you already have a lot of thread in the middle of it.

This step has only one reason – to secure the thread where it is and to give it a good basis from where we can start wrapping. This way you can also use more tension already at the beginning and get a smoother and more even wrapping part.

Ok, this is what it should look like after the step above:

And now we start the wrapping – if you started your loop from the middle to the right you now, after you went through this loop again, wrap into the other direction – see the next two pictures for it:

…around and around and around:

When you think that you have enough wrapping, it again gets a little bit tricky – turn the tassel over and “open up” the threads of the tassel to get to the threads of the cord again – this threads can be easily identified because they are longer or have an other color than the other threads…

…well, unless you cut them short before you started making this tassel – in this case you have to skip the part with the knot and just make 1-2 additional stitches through the wrapping part as described later.

Knot the thread you used for the wrapping and one of the threads from the cord together – try to place the knot more inside the tassel than at the border if possible – add 1-2 other knots to hold the first knot in place – you can see my result at the picture underneath:

Now we are getting close to the end – get your scissors and your needle!

Take the two threads we just knotted and cut them to the same length – not too short! Cutting them to the same length will just help you to get the wool thread through the eye of your needle.

Now we are going to “sew in” the thread into the tassel to secure it!

Thread this two threads into your embroidery/sewing needle – if with or without point is marginal – the eye of the needle should be just big enough that you can thread in this two threads at once through it.

Ok, now the next step – we take the needle and go directly through the middle of the wrapping – through all the threads – as you can see above.

Pull the needle through and carefully pull the rest of the thread through it – pull the knot of this two threads at the end as far inside as possible – don’t use too much force and pull carefully and slowly. The knot doesn’t need to vanish entirely.

To secure this threads make just one more stitch through the wrapping to the other side – it would be good to try to go a slightly different way than you used before – for this purpose you can also make a stitch through the cord.

Next step, as shown on the picture underneath: Pull! 🙂

The next step now is not necessary if all threads have the same color – if the threads you just worked with are in another color you can do following:

Pull the threads of the tassel back and separate the cords you just worked with – apply some tension to this threads…

…and cut them off! Please be careful not to cut off any of your other threads at this point.

Well, if you reached this point here I congratulate you to your first tassel!

Now you just need to shorten it a bit – just decide how long you want it to be and cut off the excess thread. If shortening just one tassel or adjusting the second to the length of my first tassel – I always do the same:

First I decide how long I want my tassel to be and then I squeeze it between my fingers…

…and just cut it off – the better your scissors are the easier this step will be for you.

…and finally, if you follow my tutorial you should have something similar to the tassels at the next picture:

I hope you had some fun following my “fast and easy tassel” tutorial and that you could successfully make your own tassels – in this case I would love to see pictures!

If you have any questions or comments – please don’t hesitate to ask me or to comment.