How to Make a Tassel and Attach It to Any Project

Find something rigid to wrap around. A small hardback book works because the cover width sets the tassel length for you, and there is always one on the shelf. Stiff cardboard or a plastic tassel maker do the same job.

Hold the yarn tail flat against the cover and wind around the short way, not the tall way, so the loop slides off easily later. Sewrella counts 75 wraps with a DK weight yarn. Bulky yarn fills out in half that. Stop when the band looks as plump as the tassel you want.

Snip the yarn free of the ball, then work the loop off the book with your thumbs pushed inside it. Keep the oval shape as it comes off. If it collapses into a tangle you will be sorting strands for the next five minutes.

Cut two lengths of the same yarn, roughly two feet each, and set them aside for the ties. Then open your scissors around the bottom of the loop and cut straight across in one pass. What you have now is a flat bundle of strands, all the same length.

Spread the bundle on the table so the strands lie side by side rather than twisted into a rope. Lay one of your two-foot strands across the middle at a right angle, bring the ends up, and double knot them down hard.

This is the tie you will sew through later, so pull it tighter than feels necessary and leave both ends long. If the tassel is going on a heavy blanket corner, knot it a third time. Nothing about this tie should be able to shift.

Fold the bundle in half at the middle tie so every strand falls the same way and the tie points up. Give it a shake to settle the strands.

Lay the second two-foot strand across the tassel about an inch below the fold and pull both ends into a hard knot. That inch of yarn trapped above the knot is what rounds into the head. Tie it closer to the fold and you get a flat top. Tie it loose and strands start slipping out the bottom weeks later.

Take the two tails hanging off the neck knot and wind them around the neck a few times. Keep the wraps snug and side by side so they sit like a collar. This locks the knot down, and it gives the tassel a clean line where the head meets the skirt.

When the collar looks right, push both tails down underneath the wraps so they drop into the skirt and disappear among the other strands. A crochet hook drags them through if your fingers cannot get in there.

Shake the tassel out and comb both sides with your fingers until the strands hang straight. However carefully you wrapped and cut, the ends are nowhere near level at this point.

Pinch the skirt between two fingers to flatten it, the way you would hold hair before a cut, then run the scissors straight across the bottom. Go back and clip the few strays that still hang past the rest. Take off less than you think you need, because you can always cut again.

Trim the two hanging ties level with each other and thread them both onto a yarn needle. You want a big eye here, wide enough for both strands at once, so reach for a darning needle or the largest tapestry needle in the pack.

Go through the very last stitch at the corner of your blanket, shawl or bag, then bring the needle straight back down through the center of the head of the tassel and pull tight. That single pass is the anchor, and it carries all the weight.

Take one back stitch into the fabric a row in from the edge, then come down through the edge stitch again. Two anchor points beat one, and a chunky tassel is heavy enough to need both.

Now weave the needle in and around the head. Pick up a few strands, pass the needle back through the loop it made and pull to knot it against the head. Run the tail down through the middle and out the bottom, trim it level with the skirt, and the join disappears. Shake it out and nothing on the front shows a knot.