DIY Christmas Tassel Simple StepbyStep Tutorial

// Santa salt and pepper shakers //

Can we still be friends if I tell you I don’t have a salt and pepper shaker?

I mean—I’ve had salt and pepper shakers before. Of course I have. I’ve lived a long salt and pepper shaker full life.

But on Thanksgiving Day, when I had all those people at my house? When I went to reach for the salt and pepper shakers for the table?

They were gone.

Yikes.

So I went on to Amazon and searched for salt and pepper shakers for my holiday table and found this set of Santas that look like they stepped out of the pages of Currier and Ives.

You can see them here.

But when they showed up?

And idea popped into my head.

I had a vision. A DIY.

And every time I looked at them, I didn’t see salt and pepper shakers.

Instead?

I saw this.

A Christmas tassel.

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

See what I mean?

Can you see it (and once you see it, you can’t unsee it)?

I know it should be holding pepper right now.

// Santa salt and pepper shakers //

But instead?

It’s living its best Christmas life.

Going from this.

// Santa salt and pepper shakers //

To this.

I’ve never really made a tassel like this before, so I wasn’t sure if I could do it.

And trust me.

I made a lot of mistakes along this tassel journey. But I made all the mistakes, so you don’t have to.

Here’s a simple, easy step-by-step tutorial to make your own Christmas tassel.

DIY Christmas Tassel: Simple Step-by-Step Tutorial

supplies:

chunky yarn

polka dot ribbon

red and white striped ribbon

craft wire

hot glue

Santa salt and pepper shakers

Step 1: Wind the yarn

You want to start with a super chunky yarn.

I tried so many different ways of winding it and I made two mistakes (so I wanted to share them with you so we could all learn from them).

First, I tried to wind it by hand. Big mistake. The loops came out way too uneven, and there are way too many loops to try to wind it by hand.

So I found this plate holder. It made everything so much easier and kept all of my loops consistent.

The next mistake I made was I didn’t add enough loops.

I started with 25. Not enough.

Then I went to 50. Still not enough.

Then I discovered the perfect amount of loops.

75 is actually perfect. (although when I make my next tassel with the other shaker, I may try 100 to make it even more full).

If you don’t have a plate rack like this, just find two endpoints that you can wind it around because you’re going to want all your loops equidistant.

I tied the first loop on the bottom of the plate rack and just kept winding until I had 75.

2. Add wire through loops

On the plate rack, I took the wire and threaded it through. Then I wound it around one end of my loops.

I triple checked to make sure I had all my loops included in the wire.

You want to make sure to do this because if all of your loops aren’t included, they will hang lopsidedly and look distinctly un-tassellike.

Here’s what the tassel looks like (or actually the start of the tassel after I’ve wounded the wire.

I also think it’s important to note here that I left all of my loops as a loop. You could cut the bottom of the loop if you didn’t like the look of the loops.

(total aside: this may seem a little confusing, so just ask the comments if you need more clarification)

3. Cut the ribbon

I wanted my ribbon to be slightly stacked, with the larger ribbon on the bottom and the smaller ribbon on the top

I figured out that you need to hot glue this ribbon to the underside of the shaker (I’ll show you how to do this in just a sec).

I cut 10 pieces of the polkadot ribbon and folded them in half. The polka dot ribbon is approximately 6 inches in length.

Then I cut eight pieces of the striped ribbon. The striped ribbon is approximately 6 inches in length.

4. Hot glue the smaller ribbon

Start by removing the stopper at the bottom of the shaker.

I just tossed mine because it’s not a shaker anymore. It’s a tassel. Then it was time to glue the ribbon. I wanted the striped ribbon to be on top, so it needed to be hot glued first.

I folded the ribbon in half and hot glue glued around the bottom of the Santa.

I was really surprised at how well the hot glue stuck to the ceramic. I was a little worried, but it is on there very tightly.

It’s easier when you’re gluing the ribbon to start with four (almost like creating a cross) and then add in the other ribbons on the diagonal so they all are equidistant.

5. Hot glue the larger ribbon

Next, I glued the larger ribbon.

I know this is Captain Obvious, but you wanna make sure to leave the hole at the center of the Santa.

Don’t glue the ribbon over the hole because that’s where we’re gonna put the wire through to create the top of the tassel.

6. Thread the wire through the top of the tassel

Now that your ribbons are hot-glued to the bottom of the Santa, you want to take your tassel with the end of the wire and thread them through the holes at the top of the Santa, where the salt or pepper would come out.

This is actually a lot harder than it looks.

There’s probably a brilliant way to do this and I just don’t know how so if anyone has any suggestions, please leave them in the comments.

I finally ended up getting it through the top of the Santa, but it definitely took a few tries.

Once the wire was threaded through the top holes, I formed a loop, twisted it, and then threaded the remaining wire back through the holes in the top of the Santa.

Here’s what your loop should look like after you’ve threaded the wire back through.

7. Cover the wire loop

Now I had a wire loop that was not cute at all, so I had to come up with a solution.

I added a drop of hot glue to the bottom of the wire and then started wrapping the smaller striped ribbon all around the loop. You want to wrap it tightly so it doesn’t end up looking grumpy.

Here’s what my loop looks like after I wrapped the ribbon.

That’s it!

My tassel was finished and ready to hang.

I threaded red ribbon through the top and tied a boat and hung it on the door knob in the dining room room.

But you could use this anywhere. I think it would be so cute at the end of a staircase on a new post, tied to a wreath on the front door, or even tied on a hook in the mudroom.

So what do you think?

When you look at those salt and pepper shakers, be honest, you saw a tassel too, right?

Now I have to find salt and pepper shakers I can actually use. 🙂