Peat Pot Tassel Tutorial

Making a tassel is most likely very basic for most of you, but for those few that have just started crafting or those who have never made a tassel, I thought I'd share a very simple project. This is how I made the one pictured, but you certainly may substitute whatever supplies you have on hand to make it work. Using different colors of paint, yarn and ribbon can give the tassel a whole different look.

Supplies:

• Yarn ~ I had a skein of chenille yarn bought on clearance quite some time ago
• Ribbon ~ I used 1/2 a yard of vintage seam binding ribbon
• Peat Pot ~ cheap ones may be found in the gardening section of most stores
• Craft Paint ~ I used Apple Barrel's licorice {black} and Folk Art's maple syrup {brown}
• Craft Glue ~ Alene's Tacky Glue is my favorite {not shown in the supplies photo}
• Scissors
• Something to poke a hole in the peat pot, old dental tool, skewer, etc {not shown in the supplies photo}
• Stiff Cardboard or Mat Board {Mine was about 6" long x 4" wide}
• Paint Brush ~ obviously not my good brush. It's scruffy and has been taped over and over...

  

First, I painted the peat pot with a base coat of black and then dry brushed brown over it to bring out more of the texture of the peat pot.

Next I poked a hole in the center bottom of the peat pot using an old broken dental tool I found in a junk store. It has really come in handy over the years!

Now it's time to wrap the yarn around the cardboard.

Just start wrapping.... and wrap and wrap some more...

And when you think you have enough, wrap some more...

 I stopped when it looked like it was enough to stuff inside the peat pot without any wiggle room.

Slip your ribbon between the cardboard and the yarn...

And knot off very tightly...

Then carefully cut through the loops at the other end of the cardboard.

This is what it will look like:

Using the tacky glue,

glue around the top of the tassel

Slip the ribbon ends up through the peat pot and pull out the top, being careful not to get glue on the ribbon.

Pull the top of the tassel snug inside the peat pot.

Your tassel will be uneven, so using your scissors, trim the bottom as evenly as possible.

It will be a bit messy, especially with chenille yarn!

Tie a pretty bow and this is your finished project:

I chose to leave this one plain, but the sky's the limit when adding all sorts of trims and embellishments.

Have fun!

Thanks for stopping by today!
Take Care and God Bless,

Lana

~*~