DIY: Tassels

Last weekend was my church's Greek Festival....one of the best weekends of the year.  Traditional Greek Dancing has always been a passion of mine, and we are so fortunate to have a spectacular instructor who danced with a professional group in Greece.  He not only teaches the steps, but takes the time to teach the story behind the dances, the regions, and the costumes.  It's consistently my favorite day of the week.  But, I digress....

...
This year the high school group performed dances from the island of Crete, and our dance director decided she was going to make the girls' costumes.  Eighteen costumes to be exact, with seven separate pieces to each costume.  Whew.  When she innocently asked if I knew how to make a tassel, I had no idea what I was getting myself into with a "yes, they're easy" reply.  There are seven tassels per apron, times eighteen aprons, that's right, folks, that's 126 tassels.....although, I'm definitely not comparing it to the work she put into them!!!

We were pretty tickled with the results and the girls seemed happy wearing them.  We're hoping to work on a different region next year (this time starting a little earlier...).  But for now, that was just a really long introduction to the DIY tassel.  And I was honest, they really are easy.

Supplies:

• yarn of choice, I prefer crochet yarn, but embroidery floss will also work
• credit card, gift card, or cardboard
• scissors

Directions:

• Wrap yarn around gift card for desired thickness of tassel.  For these we wrapped 70 times.

• Tie yarn together and knot.  Pull off card.

• Snip ends of side opposite the knot.

• Wrap additional yarn around top of tassel.  I wrap once, knot, then continue wrapping.  (For this tassel I wrapped 20 times. It just depends on how thick or wide you want the top.  Can do same color as tassel, or a contrasting color.) Knot and snip ends.  

• Voila!  Now I'm thinking of all the other tasseling I can do other than Greek costumes!  Lots of little projects coming soon....

Happy Crafting!