How to make Beaded Yarn Tassels

Yarn tassels are an easy way to add a little extra fun and finish to a crochet project. One way we can add even more personality to a yarn tassel is with beads. A beaded yarn tassel adds a little pop of color or interest to the tassel and project and they’re incredibly easy to make.

This image is the header image for this blog post about how to make a yarn tassel with a bead. It reads "How to make beaded tassels", referring to beaded yarn tassels.

While finishing up the design for the Liana Table Runner, I knew I wanted to add tassels to the four corners for a little bit of a finishing touch. The table runner is all one color, though, and the tassels being the same color on their own added something but not enough.

I’ve had these wooden beads hanging around forever, just waiting for me to find the perfect usage for them. As it turns out, they’re perfect for this design.

What I didn’t like when adding the beads with a “normal” yarn tassel, though, is the pouf between the fringe and the bead.

Typically when we make tassels from yarn, we wrap an end around the fringe of the tassel several times to gather them together and it creates a sort of ball or pouf like this:

This image shows the lumina shawl pattern close up to show the pouf on the tassel.
This tassel is attached to my Lumina Shawl pattern.

I wasn’t a fan of it with the chunky beads I wanted to use. At that point it was just too much and I wanted the fringe to look like it was coming directly out of the bead.

In other words, I wanted the bead to replace the pouf. So, I did just that.

And now, if you want a beaded tassel without the pouf, you can make some too!

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What you’ll need to make a Beaded Tassel

While my entire blog is geared toward crochet, that doesn’t mean you can’t make these beaded yarn tassels if you don’t know how to crochet. The only prior skills you need to know to make a beaded yarn tassel you probably learned in kindergarten: how to tie a basic knot and how to cut something with scissors. Easy!

To make a beaded yarn tassel, you’ll need the following:

This image shows the items you'll need to make a beaded yarn tassel as described in the text.

Yarn: Yarn is typically what most people reach for when making a tassel. You don’t have to use yarn, though. You can use embroidery floss, macrame cord, etc.

The fiber content of your yarn doesn’t matter. It can be cotton, acrylic, wool or a blend of these. Additionally, the weight (thickness of the yarn, learn more here) doesn’t matter as long as you can fit several strands through your chosen bead.

Scissors: Any scissors you have floating around the house will do.

Tapestry Needle (AKA darning needle): These are needles that are much bigger than standard sewing needles. They typically have blunt tips and wider eyes. The blunt tip ensures the yarn plies won’t split when using the needle and the wider eye makes it easier to put the yarn through. These typically come in packs of several sizes so you’ll be able to test different tapestry needles with your chosen bead to make sure it will pull through without issue.

Beads: Any bead you like will work for a beaded yarn tassel. The only thing you need to consider is the size of the hole in the bead. Keep in mind that we will be running the equivalent of 2 strands of yarn through this bead. Therefore, the hole of the bead must be large enough to allow the tapestry needle and 2 strands of yarn to pass through.

The type of bead doesn’t matter. It can be wood, plastic, glass or whatever you like. It can be as colorful or classic or boho as you wish. It’s your choice!

A “wrapping object”: In order to make the tassel, we need to create several strands of yarn to fill it out. Instead of measuring and cutting a lot of strands, we’ll simply find something in our home that is about as long we’d like our tassel to be and use that to wrap the yarn around. This way, we’ll only have to cut the yarn once.

You’ll want to ensure that the object you choose is firm and won’t bend or fold when yarn is wrapped around it. Choose an object that is approximately as long as you’d like your tassel to be. When in doubt, use a slightly larger object. You can always cut excess yarn off later!

You’ll see I am using a small notebook for my tassel in this tutorial. You can use something similar or you can use a small box, a piece of firm cardboard cut to approximately the size you want, a spatula, the cardboard insert of an empty toilet paper roll, your phone… Anything, really!

What you’ll attach the tassels to: Of course, because this blog is dedicated to crochet, I’ll be attaching my tassels to my Liana Table Runner. You could also attach these tassels to scarves, shawls, blankets (I do NOT recommend beaded yarn tassels for baby blankets, though), etc.

Aside from crochet projects, you can attach your tassel to anything you like! Attach it to a keyring for a cute keychain, tie them to a length of yarn to make a tassel garland (especially cute at Christmas!), hang one from a hanging plant… The possibilities are endless!

How to make Beaded Yarn Tassels

Now that we know what we’ll need to make our beaded yarn tassels, let’s walk through making one!

Step 1

Before we start making the tassel, cut a length of yarn about 6-9 inches long (a guesstimate is fine here, no need to measure closely). We cut this first so that we don’t have to worry about cutting it later. Set this short length of yarn to the side but keep it close. We’ll need it soon!

Step 2

The two items we’ll need for Step 2 are our yarn and the object we’ll wrap the yarn around. Set all the other materials to the side for now.

Position the object we’ll wrap our yarn around so that the side that will create the length of our tassel is vertical.

In the image below, my little notebook is turned to the side. This is because I want the tassel to be approximately as long as the width of the notebook, not as long as the length.

Place the end of the yarn at the bottom of the object and bring the strand up to the top. We’ll need to hold the end in place for the first couple of wraps.

This image shows the first step to creating a beaded yarn tassel as described in the text.

Then, wrap the yarn to the back of the object from top to bottom as the arrow in the image above indicates.

When our yarn reaches the bottom of the back side of our object, we have completed one wrap. Continue wrapping the yarn around the object and count the number of wraps as you go.

This image shows the next step as described in the text.

Here I have 6 wraps so far. I’ll continue wrapping the yarn around the object until it’s about half as thick as I’d like the tassel to be.

Note: This may take some trial and error. You may wrap the yarn a bunch and, when you remove it from the object, find that the tassel would be way too thick for your liking or you may not wrap it enough so it’s too thin. Count the number of times the yarn wraps around the object while you’re wrapping. This will give you a good baseline of what to do if the tassel is too thick or too thin.

For example, if you’ve wrapped the yarn around 20 times and it’s too thin, then you’ll want to wrap the yarn around more than 20 times.

The higher the number of wraps, the thicker the tassel will be.

This image shows the next step as described in the text.

Once we’ve wrapped the yarn around our object until the wrapped yarn is approximately half the thickness we’d like our tassel to be, we can stop wrapping. This tassel will have 30 wraps (or 60 ends once cut).

Step 3

Now we need the 6-8 inch length of yarn we cut prior to wrapping. We’ll use this to gather all the wraps, pull the wraps off the object and secure them.

This image shows the next step to creating a beaded yarn tassel as described in the text.
  • Picture 1: Thread one end of the 6-9 inch length of yarn under the gathered wraps as the black arrow indicates.
  • Picture 2: You can see the short length of yarn threaded under the wraps. Now, pull it up toward the top of the object as the black arrow pointing upward indicates.
  • Picture 3: You can see the short length of yarn is now at the top, which will be the top of the tassel. Gently remove the wrapped yarn from your object. You may have to slide it a little from the top and then a little from the bottom, depending on how tight your wraps are.
  • Picture 4: This is what our tassel looks like so far once removed from the object we wrapped yarn around. You can see the short length of yarn gathering all of the wraps together at the top.

Now that we have the short length of yarn threaded through the wraps and the wraps of yarn are off of our object, we’ll secure the wraps.

Step 4

This image shows the next step as described in the text.
  • Picture 1: Tie the two ends of the short length of yarn together. A normal knot like you’re tying your shoes works just fine here. Black arrows point to the two ends of the short length of yarn.
  • Picture 2: Here you can see the length of yarn tied. Make sure to pull this knot very tight.
  • Picture 3: Double knot the tie, making sure it’s very tight.
  • Picture 4: Now that our wraps are secure, we can cut the working yarn (the yarn that is still attached to the skein or ball of yarn). Cut it so it’s about as long as the wraps are.

Step 5

Now that the wraps are totally secure, we will cut the wraps to create the fringe that makes up the tassel. Position the tassel so that the wraps create a sort of circle. We want to cut as many of these at once as we can to save time but if one or two aren’t cut in this first pass, that’s okay! We can always cut it after.

This image shows the next step to creating a beaded yarn tassel as described in the text.

To do this, we will hold the short length of yarn that secured our wraps and pull in one direction as the arrows in the top of the image indicate. Then, we’ll use our scissors to cut the wraps.

Insert one blade of your scissors into the loops of yarn and keep the other blade outside. The long horizontal arrow going through the wraps indicates how your scissor blade should go through. Pull on your scissors in the opposite direction of the tie to make the tassel taut. This helps to make sure all the strands of yarn will be close to the same length.

This image shows the next step as described in the text.

Here you can see I am holding the tie and pulling it toward me. I have inserted one blade of my scissors into the wrap and I am pulling away from me (as we should always do with scissors!).

Go ahead and cut all the wraps. If you miss one or two and you still have a couple of loops instead of fringe, go ahead and cut those too.

This image shows the next step as described in the text.

This is what the tassel looks like so far and it’s nearly done! Fluff or shake the fringe so that it doesn’t look parted.

Now would be a good time to trim the fringe as the dashed line in the image above indicates, if you need to. You’ll want to trim your fringe if you have a few long pieces sticking out that aren’t uniform.

Step 6

With the fringe on our tassel created, we can now add our bead! For this part, we will need our tapestry needle and bead.

This image shows the next step to creating a beaded yarn tassel as described in the text.
  • Picture 1: Grab the tapestry needle and thread both ends of the tie through the eye of the needle.
  • Picture 2: You can see both ends are through the eye of my tapestry needle.
  • Picture 3: Grab your chosen bead.
  • Picture 4: Insert the tapestry needle through the bead and pull the tails through.

Push the bead down to meet the top of the tassel. Our beaded yarn tassel is basically finished!

You can, of course, add more beads if you like! Add as many or as few beads as you like.

This image shows a beaded yarn tassel finished prior to being attached to a crochet project.

Give a firm but gentle pull on the bead, pulling down toward the fringe. Make sure the fringe doesn’t pull through the bead. Considering the amount of times we’ve wrapped the yarn to create the fringe, it shouldn’t. But if your bead has a very large hole in it, you’ll want to make sure it’s secure.

Now you can decide whether or not you want to create a knot on the other side of the bead from the fringe to secure the bead.

I did not because I’ll be attaching this tassel directly to a crochet project and that will secure the bead. I also did not want a big knot showing between the bead and the edge of the project.

However, if you won’t be using the tassel right away, you may want to secure the bead. Depending on the size of the hole in the bead, this tie may have to be pretty big.

Attaching the beaded yarn tassel to a project

Now that we have our tassel made, we’ll of course want to attach it to a finished crochet project. I’m attaching mine to my Liana Table Runner pattern.

For this, we’ll keep the ends of the tied yarn in the tapestry needle and grab the project you wish to attach the beaded yarn tassel to.

This image shows how to attach your yarn tassel with beads to a project.
  • Picture 1: A black arrow points to the corner of my project, where I’ll attach this yarn tassel. You can see the ends of my tied yarn are still in the tapestry needle.
  • Picture 2: Remove one of the ends of the tied yarn from the needle. Make sure the other end of yarn is still threaded through the needle.
  • Picture 3: Use the needle to pull the one strand of yarn through the stitch where you want the tassel to be. You can see one end of the tied yarn pulled through a chain 2 space in the corner.
  • Picture 4: Once one end of the tail is pulled through, tie a tight knot using the two ends of the tie. I like to double knot mine.
This image shows the beaded yarn tassel attached to the project.

Now the tassel is attached and the knot is very tight. With a crochet project, we will weave in the ends of the tie into the project to further secure it.

This image shows how we weave in the ends.

So, we’ll weave in one of the ends first just like we would any other end of our crochet project. And, once one of the ends is weaved in, we’ll weave in the other one.

This image shows the finished product of a beaded yarn tassel when attached to a project.

And there you have it! One beaded yarn tassel completed and attached to a project.

If you’re attaching this tassel to something that isn’t a crochet (or knit) project where you can weave the ends of the tie into the project, you’ll still want to hide these ends.

You can tie the tassel onto whatever it is you’re attaching it to and then, once tied, use your tapestry needle to bring those ties back down through the bead to where the fringe is. Tie it off nice and tight and then push the ends into the fringe to hide them.

This image is of the liana table runner, which uses tassels made from this beaded yarn tassel tutorial.

That’s all there is to making a beaded yarn tassel! Aside from being super fun and easy to make, they’re also a great way to use up little scraps of yarn that you may not be able to do much else with.

Want to save this tutorial for later? Save it to Pinterest!

This image is a pinterest pin.

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Shannon | Designer & Editor

Shannon helps crocheters find their next project and build their skills with in depth tutorials and crochet patterns on her blog, theloopholefox.com.

With more than a decade of crochet experience, Shannon knows that understanding why we do something matters just as much as how we do it. She teaches new techniques and crochet stitches in depth so you can crochet with confidence.

Patterns you could use your new Beaded Yarn Tassel skills on:

The Heather Shawl
The Lumina Shawl
Melody Shawl
Aura Wall Hanging
The Casey Scarf
Color Block Super Scarf
Aspen Throw Blanket
Casey Throw Blanket
In Bloom Ruana
Aestas Ruana
The Brivet Bag



4 Comments

  1. I love this idea. The beaded tassels are so pretty. I also look forward to your upcoming table runner. Thank you for sharing all this information!

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