A handful of years back I bought a bunch of different colors of embroidery floss and set out to make mini tassels. The plan was to make some cute tassel earrings. I glanced through a few tutorials but I had no idea how to make a DIY mini tassel maker. So I finally settled on my small plastic ruler because it was just over an inch wide. That was right about the length that I wanted my tassels to be.
It all worked fine until I went to add a jump ring to the top. Trying to slide the jump rings between my embroidery floss and the plastic ruler was a huge pain. It was also a huge waste of time. There were even a few times that in trying to shove the jump ring through the embroidery floss I got the threads a little tangled up, which ruined the look of my finished tassel.
After a while I got frustrated enough that I simply moved on to a different project. But a few months back, I came across a video of someone making a tassel using a hardcover book. The pages of the book sat a bit lower than the covers, so it left a small little notch that you could easily slide a string through to tie the top of the tassel.
That was it! Although I was looking to make tassels much, much smaller than what using a book would yield, I now knew the general concept of what I needed to do.
At the time I had other projects I was working on, so I sort of forgot about it until about a week ago when I started some keychains that I planned to embellish with tiny tassels. So today I whipped up a quick little tassel maker and to my delight, it worked perfectly! Now I can whip up a perfect tassel in just a few minutes with no fuss, even when using big heavy gauge jump rings.
What You Will Need for this Project
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To Make the DIY Mini Tassel Maker:
To Make the Tassel:
A typical tassel is attached at the top by more of the embroidery floss, but you may want to use a jump ring instead (this is my preferred method). In case you are using a jump ring, you will also need:
The reason I have two pairs of jewelry pliers in the picture above is because I’m using a heavy gauge jump ring, which is much harder to open than the typical thinner ones. If using a thinner jump ring, you should only need one pair of pliers. You’d also only need one pair of pliers if you were using a jump ring opener like this one.
How to Make a DIY Mini Tassel Maker and Mini Tassel
Step 1: Cut DIY Mini Tassel Maker Pattern Pieces
First you need to cut out all the pattern pieces that will be used to assemble the tassel maker. I used 110 lb cardstock because it’s what I had on hand, but any similar material should work fine too. You could also probably get away with using standard 65 lb weight cardstock. Though if you do go that route, I’d suggest doubling the number of pieces you cut out to make sure everything is thick enough.
The pattern is simple enough, containing only two different shapes. I wanted a tassel that was about 1.25 inches long, so my outer rectangles are 1.25” x 2.5”. The inner rectangles are 1” x 2.5”. You will need to cut two outer pieces and six inner pieces.
It might be a bit hard to tell in the picture above, but the top two pieces are slightly larger than the rest. Those are the pieces that make the outside of the tassel maker.
You can of course just use regular scissors to cut out the pattern pieces, but I used this paper cutter. I felt it made things go a lot faster while also giving me more accurate cuts than I could have made by hand.
Step 2: Assemble Tassel Maker
Now it’s time to put all these pieces together. I used Mod Podge to glue the pattern pieces, but any other glue that can handle gluing thick cardstock will work just fine too.
Starting with the six inner pieces, brush a thin layer of glue across the entire front of one of the pieces before laying the next piece on top.
Repeat to glue all six middle pieces together.
Next glue an outer rectangle to each end. Make sure that the bottoms of all the pieces are lined up evenly. You want the bottom of the tassel maker to be flat and for the notch to only be on the top.
Glue your last piece to the back. This is what the tassel maker will look like from the side:
Then set your newly assembled tassel maker to the side to dry for at least 30 minutes.
Step 3: Wrap Embroidery Floss
When your tassel maker is fully dry, you can now start making tassels. Take your embroidery floss and begin wrapping it around the outside of the tassel maker.
Try to keep your loops in the same spot and don’t go all over the tassel maker. This will make it easier to bundle everything up in the next step. If your threads happen to be a little to spread out, I’ve found it easy enough to push them back to the middle.
How many times you wrap it is up to you. The more times you wrap the thread around, the more full your finished tassel will be. I found that 40 to 50 times gives me just what I’m looking for. But you might want to do more or less than that. The tassel I’m making in these pictures was wrapped 40 times around.
When you are done wrapping, snip the end of the embroidery floss.
Step 4: Attach Thread/Jump Ring to Top of Floss Bundle
Now it’s time to add something to the top of the tassel. Depending on what type of project you are doing, you may want to use another piece of embroidery floss or a jump ring.
Whichever you choose, simply slide it through the middle of the tassel maker under your threads and out the other side.
Then close/tie it to keep it in place.
From here, carefully slide your bundle of thread off of the tassel maker.
Step 5: Tie Top of Floss Bundle
Next, cut another small piece of embroidery floss about 12-15 inches long. Wrap it around the top of the top of your tassel and tie a tight knot to secure. Just to make sure everything stays together, I like to flip the tassel over and tie at least one more knot on the other side.
Continue tying knots and/or wrapping the thread around the top of your tassel until it looks the way you want. After knotting the thread a final time, you can at this point snip the end of the thread as close to the knot as possible. But I like to instead take it a step further to hide the knot a little bit.
If you want to try and hid the knot a little better, thread one end of your thread onto your embroidery needle. Then push the needle through your tassel to the other side.
Remove the thread from the needle and repeat with the other thread.
Pull the threads tight and snip. I then usually use either my fingers or the end of the needle to poke the snipped ends back into the middle of the tassel to hide them. This technique doesn’t usually completely hide the knot on your tassel, but it will make it a bit less visible.
Here’s what the back side with the knot looks like:
And here’s the front. This side looks a bit cleaner:
Step 6: Cut and Trim Bottom of Floss Bundle
With your scissors, cut the loops at the bottom of your tassel.
The tassel can be trimmed at this point and be done, but I think it still looks too messy.
This next part is optional, but recommended. I take my needle and brush it through the bottom part of the tassel. This pulls apart the strands of embroidery floss a bit. I think this ends up making the tassel look a little better. But as I said, it’s completely optional.
At this point your tassel will look just about finished but is still probably a bit uneven. Using your scissors, even out the bottom. You can even trim it a bit if you would like your tassel to be shorter.
Much better! Now your tassel is ready to be attached to all kinds of different fun projects.
Final Thoughts
I am beyond happy with this DIY mini tassel maker. Finally after so much trial and error I’ve figured out a way to make the mini tassels I want.
This tassel maker also makes it super easy to make tassels that are a specific size. The full height of the tassel maker measures about 1.25 inches. When all is said and done, that is just about what the finished mini tassel is too.
My only issue isn’t with the tassel maker, but the tassel itself. I still haven’t found a method of wrapping up the top of the tassel that properly hides the knots. If anyone knows how to do this, I’d love to know!
I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and found it helpful. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below. I’d love to hear from you! Thank you for stopping by and happy crafting!
