DIY Beaded Tassel Bracelets

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, 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:

*Embroidery floss

*Gold jump rings (the circles used to attach the tassels to the bracelet) - I used the 6mm size

*Beads - I used white howlite stone beads

*Stretch Magic jewelry cord - I used the 0.7mm size

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.

Trim the bottom of the tassel to the length you want. Take an extra piece of embroidery floss and wrap it around the top of the tassel several times and then tie it in a knot. Let the bottom piece fall down and become part of the tassel, trimming it to the same length. Cut off the top piece close to the knot.

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.

There are endless options for the bracelets you can create by changing up the color or size of the beads along with the color of the tassels. And they'd look great stacked with other types of bracelets too. They've definitely added some fun to my summer wardrobe!