How To Make A Scrappy Tassel

Before I go into how to make one of these beauties...

I am going to tell you a story.

Let's say my friend had a problem. We shall call her, um, Penny. Penny was a craft and DIY blogger who enjoyed things like chalk, chocolate, and the like. Penny had been working really hard at teaching herself to sew. She spent hours (and hours and hours) scouring Pinterest for simple and clear tutorials for all sorts of cute little dresses, bags, etc. But it was always the same...the directions always said something like "Finish your edges with your serger or pinking shears so the edges don't fray."

Sad trombone.

Penny doesn't have a serger. Penny doesn't have pinking shears. Penny spent many, many, many nights folding over hems and folding them again to hide raw edges even on dumb things.

Enter Mom and Christmas and something magical and glorious happened! Penny received a brand new, big and shiny set of pinking shears! Yay for Penny's mom!

Now Penny is happily pinking everything in sight!

Pink all the things!!

Ok, so I got carried away. But I'm seriously giddy about my pinking shears so I decided to raid my stash and whip up some DIY Valentine's decorations which left me with a heap of scraps. So not wanting to put that pretty fabric in the trash, I made some tassels. Love them. Now two things make me giddy! Pinking shears and tassels! You'll notice how all the strips are pinked. : )

This is so easy it's almost embarrassing.

1. Cut strips of fabric double the length plus more for trimming you want your final tassel to be. I cut 50 strips ( plus one more for tying it together) at about 15 inches long. I found it easiest to cut my fabric to 15 inches, fold it in half and then cut all the strips.

2. Lay your strips, right side down, in a wheel-spoke pattern making sure to try to get all the strips to lay as close to the same spot in the middle as possible. After you have all the strips placed down, lay your extra strip right side down on your workplace.