Introduction: Basic Leather Tassel

About: With over 40 years in the supply business, Weaver Leather has developed a reputation for bringing you top quality leather, hand tools, hardware, machines and more.

Project Summary:
Learn to cut unique leather tassels for your projects with a few basic leathercraft tools. Tassels can be made from a wide variety of leathers in 2/3 oz. or 3/4 oz.

Approximate Time to Complete: 10 minutes including drying time

What You Need:

2/3 oz. Natural Kipskin Leather approximately 8" x 2" (09-1050S-2/3) or a leather of your choice in 2/3 oz. or 3/4 oz.

Utility Knife (65-2860)

Steel Square (65-3038)

Poly Cutting Board (65-2916)

S-18 Contact Cement (50-2131)

Hand Stitching Thread, Brown (50-1554-BR)

Wax Paper or Tracing Film

Step 1: Tutorial Overview

For this tutorial we will be making a tassel with a 1" spine and 3/16" fringe.

Step 2: Steel Square

Place your piece of Leather on top of your Poly Cutting Board and line the top of your Steel Square along the top edge of the Leather. The 1" arm of the Steel Square will work perfect for our 1" spine on the tassel. Slide the square in 3/16" for your first strand of fringe.

Step 3: Cut

Make your first cut, running the Utility Knife along the edge of the Steel Square.

Step 4: Make a Second Cut

Slide your Steel Square over another 3/16" and make your second cut. Continue this process until you are near the end of your Leather.

Step 5: Trim Excess Leather

Go ahead and trim off any excess Leather so all the fringe pieces are equally wide.

Step 6: Trim Bottom

If the bottom of your tassel shows any knife cuts kicking to the left, simply trim off the bottom ⅛" using the Steel Square and Utility Knife.

Step 7: Glue Tassel

To glue the tassel, flip your fringe over so the suede side is facing up. Take your first strand of fringe and pull it towards you. Apply Contact Cement to the spine of the fringe and 1" down on the first strand of fringe. Skip a ½" spot and apply a little more Contact Cement. The spot with no Contact Cement will be used as a loop later in the tutorial.

Step 8: Apply Cement

Take your piece of Wax Paper and flip the fringe over so the top grain side is facing up and the Contact Cement side is lying on the Wax Paper. Find your first tassel that has Contact Cement on the suede side and apply Contact Cement on the spine only, going only halfway across this time.

Step 9: Let the Cement Dry

Let the Contact Cement dry for a minute or 2.

Step 10: Form a Loop

Flip the fringe over so the suede side is facing up and grab your first strand of fringe (that has the Contact Cement applied) and bring it up, leaving the small portion of unglued strand out to form a loop.

Step 11: Roll Fringe

Slowly start rolling up the piece of fringe, being careful to not get the glue on your fingers.

Step 12: Tassel With Loop

You should have a tassel with a loop coming out the top.

Step 13: Add Thread

Take your Thread, make a loop and lay it down on the spine of the tassel. Hold it down with your thumb and bring the longer piece up to cross over the shorter piece. Start winding the longer piece of thread around the top of the spine and keep going until you get to the top of the tassel.

Step 14: Threading

Once you get to top, take the end of your Thread and run it through the thread loop at the top, pulling it tight. Now take the Thread coming out of the bottom and pull on it, this will pull the loop at the top down behind your wrapped Thread and hold it in place.

Step 15: Hide Your Knot

This will completely hide the knot and hold the Thread in place.

Step 16: Trim Thread

To trim the Thread, lay your Utility Knife on top of the Thread and pull it across the blade. That way, you won’t cut into the leather of the wrapped Thread.

Step 17: Completion

Your tassel is now complete!