It never fails that every year as we roll into summer, I open up my closet, take a look around at what’s inside, and decide that I have no decent summer clothes to wear. Nothing. Please tell me that I’m not the only one.
The reality is that I have plenty of clothes but I’m just tired of seeing them year after year. Instead of buying a whole new wardrobe, I try to buy just a few new pieces of clothing for the season along with some inexpensive jewelry and accessories to dress up the clothes that I already have.
After falling in love with Bluefly’s fun beaded tassel bracelets (affiliate link), I decided to DIY a few of my own to get the same look for less. And with the added bonus that I can make them in the exact colors that I want and the size that fits my wrists:
The tassels are made in a similar way to the DIY furniture tassels I posted about earlier this year. I got all of my supplies at Michaels including:
Start by taking a piece of cardstock or cardboard about 1.5″ tall and wrap your embroidery floss around it (I wrapped mine around about 20 times). Then cut a separate piece of embroidery floss and thread it under the floss wrapped around the cardstock. Pinch shut one of the jump rings and thread it onto one end of the extra piece of floss:
Using the extra piece of floss, tie a tight knot attaching the jump ring to the top of the wrapped floss. Cut off the ends close to the knot. Then pull the wrapped floss off of the cardstock and cut the bottom loop of the floss opposite the jump ring.
Cut off a piece of the Stretch Magic jewelry cord and make a knot at one end. String your beads and tassel on the cord and tie the cord in a double knot once done. You can add a drop of glue (found in the jewelry section at Michaels) to the double knot if you want to be sure that it’s secure. You’re done!
I made dark grey, pink, and mint green bracelets to stack together that match one of my favorite summer tops. The cost for the bracelets was only about $5 each.
these are adorable! what a great idea, kris!
Super cute!
Love those and I bet if you did them with frayed rope a huge beads they would great thrown on a shelf or sued table too! Great!
Oh Kris, this is exactly what I was looking for!! I’ve wanted to make these for a long time and your tutorial is the best out there! Thanks for showing it step by step with all the pics. I’m going to give this a try. 🙂
Their super cute Kris!!!! Love the beads you chose for this project. Didn’t know you have a knack for jewelry making?! Keep it up! As for clothes, well you know my dilemma, lucky enough I have a lot of maxi that I can wear with my baby bump as well. But nothing beats a great pair of patterned shorts and skirts for me for summer and I CAN’T WEAR MINE right now!!!!
Perfect jewelry for summer! Bright, colorful and made to order!!
This is just fabulous! I’m obsessed with tassels (like everyone else) but to be able to create my own in any color, how awesome!!!
Okay…..those are adorable!! Seriously – I need to come visit you and have you make me some 🙂
Kris, these are SO fun!! I bet your cute assistants got in on this diy! 🙂
So adorable! No, you are not the only one. I finally got rid of everything that I just don’t like on me…boy is my closet empty now. It feels good to know that everything left is something I would wear. I have also been shopping to fill in pieces that I do like and want to wear.
See what happens when I reply from a cell phone ! Ugh sorry for all typos! Side table not sued table- lol!
The perfect diy! I love these.
I love how you stack the bracelets together! So pretty!
Thanks so much!
Kris, these bracelets are so beautiful! I might need to use this idea for an art camp I’m doing this summer.
I LOVE these bracelets! What kind of embroidery floss do you have? I tried to make tassels with the stuff I have and they don’t look nearly as good. Not very “tassel-y”…more like a blob of cotton thread.
Hi Stephanie,
I’ve had fun mixing and matching my tassel bracelets this summer – glad you like them too! I’ve used different kinds of embroidery floss for the ones that I’ve made – there’s a kind that has a little bit of a sheen to it that seems to work best for the tassels but it doesn’t come in as many colors so I actually just used the standard embroidery floss from Michaels for the ones I used in this post. The ones with the standard floss don’t have as much movement so they don’t look as good for long tassels but for shorter tassels like these bracelets have (I actually ended up cutting mine a little shorter after I published the post) they’ve worked well for me. Hope that helps!
This post must have been during my blog break over the summer bc otherwise I would have raved and raved when you posted it! I love these! Can I find embroidery floss at Michael’s or Joanns?
Thanks Beth – I know that you are a girl with a love for tassels too! Yep, you can get the embroidery floss from either place. There is a silkier kind I found at Joanns that works best (the tassels aren’t so stiff) but it’s only in very limited colors so most of mine are done with the standard floss.