Yarn tassels are great for decorating your costume belts, and can also be used elsewhere. They are also easy to make and, depending on your yarn preferences, can be created inexpensively.

Materials:

  • Yarn
  • Scissors
  • Heavy cardboard (or a CD case)
  • A sturdy hook or peg

Start by determining how big you want your tassel to be, and cut a cardboard template roughly the desired length of the tassel.  (The poofy tassel itself, not the string/handle attached to the top of the tassel.)  This template will determine the length of the tassel, and how many times you wrap the yarn around will determine the width/poofiness of the tassel.  A CD case is a nice size to start with, if you don’t feel like making a template from scratch just yet.

Once you’ve done that, you can start making the cord that the tassel will hang from.  You can make this by just braiding together yarn, but I’ve found it looks nice to make the cord using a macrame knot, with a nice loop at one end.  To do this, start by cutting two pieces of yarn (each about 2.5 times longer than the desired cord length), putting them together, and folding them in half.  Tie a knot where you want the cord to start (leaving a loop at the end).

Slip the loop over your hook or peg, and start working macrame square knots, until the cord is the desired length.  In lieu of a bad picture of such a knot, here is a wonderful online resource that has nice pictures and descriptions:

http://www.free-macrame-patterns.com/square-knot.html

Once the desired length is reached, stop, leave the long strings hanging (you’ll need them later), and move on to making the tassel itself.  Start by placing a piece of yarn a little more than twice the planned length of the tassel crosswise along the top of your template (you’ll use this to tie the top of the tassel later).

Now, starting at the bottom of your template, start wrapping the yarn around the template.  Thirty times around is a good place to start, you may want more or less depending on how thick your yarn is.  Using regular old acrylic yarn and a CD case for a template, 40 – 50 times around seems to work well.

Once you’ve finished wrapping, cut the yarn where it reaches the bottom of the template.  Now, making sure to keep track of that crosswise piece, slip the yarn off of the template. Tie the two ends of the crosswise piece together in a sturdy double knot, so that it will hold your tassel together at the top.  Now you have a big donut of yarn, tied at the top. Cut through the bottom.

Now it’s time to attach the tassel to your cord and finish it.  Start by flipping the tassel so that your knot is facing down.  Tie the dangling ends from your cord around the tassel in the same place (so that the knot is in the same place as your previous knot).

Now, pull the loose ends of the tassel down and around to cover your knots.  Take some more yarn and wrap it around the tassel, about an inch below the top of the tassel.  Make the wrapped section however wide you like.  Tie the ends of this yarn together and wriggle them around a bit so they are covered by the wrapped section and the ends dangle down amongst the rest of the tassel.

Trim up the ends so they are nice and even, and you’re all done!  Your tassel is now all ready to be attached to whatever you like.