DIY

HOW TO MAKE A FESTIVE TASSEL GARLAND

How to make tassel garland with yarn and straws.

I’m back today with more birthday fun to share!  Right after Valentine’s Day we start gearing up for Ashley’s birthday… she loves it when I find cute ways to decorate for her birthday.  I love making garland for our fireplace mantel, and I’m going to show you how I made this fun festive garland out of just yarn and straws!  You can play around with colors and variations to make this fun garland work for any occasion.

I found making these tassels to be really fun, there are some tutorials using objects such as books, but I found sliding the yarn off to be difficult, and it made my tassels longer than I wanted.  I began looking around the house for other objects to use while wrapping the yarn and… we ended up with a toilet paper roller!  I mean 3 girls live in this house… there is always an empty toilet paper roller hanging around.

How to make tassel garland with yarn and straws.

SUPPLIES NEEDED

Yarn

Scissors

Decorative straws

A flattened toilet paper roller

How to make yarn tassel garland.

You can find decorative cardboard straws at craft stores, party stores, at some grocery stores, and online of course!  You can find a variety of patterns and colors.  Not only are they perfect for this garland but so cute for parties and entertaining.

How to make yarn tassel garland.

Start by wrapping the yarn around the flattened toilet paper roller.  I wrapped all mine around 30 times, then cut the yarn.  You could wrap them even more if you would like fuller tassels.

Now cut 2 more strips of yarn to finish the tassels.  Take a strip of yarn, thread it under the yarn at the top of the roller, and tie in a knot.  Then simply slide it off the roller.  The flexibility of the cardboard makes this much easier.

How to make yarn tassel garland.

You’ll be left with a large loop, simply cut down the center.  At this point if any ends look off center you can pull one side gently to adjust.  The yarn strings that we used to tie off you can keep separate so you can tie your tassels on to the object of your choice or tuck the strings in if you’re attaching the tassels a different way.

That’s confusing… I’ll show you below what I mean.  But first let’s finish the tassel.  Tie another cut strip of yarn around the tassel to finish it.  You’ll want the yarn strip long enough that it will blend in with the other yarn pieces.  Once tied in a knot cut the strings if they’re too long.

How to make yarn tassel garland.

Now for that confusing part, see in the bottom left photo, for the right tassel I left my original knotted ends out so I could tie it onto my garland or any object.  For the left one I tucked the strings down with the other strings.  The reason I started doing this is because I noticed I could just slide the straws through the center to attach to the garland, and this created a cleaner look.  You can absolutely tie it on though, it’s just a preference.

You can cut the straws to any size, I cut mine in half.  I was worried that cutting the straws would crush them because they were cardboard, but that wasn’t an issue.  Regular scissors should work just fine.

How to make yarn tassel garland.

Take your yarn, measure, and cut to the length that you would like your garland to be.  Remember to leave enough yarn so your garland can be attached.

Above I’m showing all 3 examples.  You can tie the tassel ends onto the garland in a knot, or a bow.  If the knot is tight and secure you can also cut it off at the top, like I did in the center.  The last tassel I slid through the top tassel center.  For this project I did a mix of cut and tied with ends tucked down.  For this specific project I like the tucked in look, but it just depends on what you’re doing really.

How to make yarn tassel garland.

Keep tying or threading the tassels and straws through the yarn.  I ended with a tassel so I could create a knot with the last tassel.   This garland is so light weight it can be taped up, or you can tie a loop at the end for a hook or nail.

How to make a yarn tassels for a present.

I tied 3 tassels together to make a festive birthday bow!

How to make yarn tassel garland.

I think different colors and straw patterns would be adorable to make, I especially think a patriotic or Halloween colored one would be really fun.  You could even leave out the straws and just tie a bunch of yarn tassels together to create a fun garland look.

I had a lot of fun making this garland, you can always make longer tassels by cutting a paper towel roller and experiment with using ribbons.  These tassels are just so great to play around with and they’re a very forgiving craft… hahaha!  Sometimes I botch my crafts.  See you soon!

 

Laura

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