How to Make Leather Tassels
Learn how to make leather tassels for jewelry, handbag charms and more! When you’re done, try these beaded tassels too! This post contains affiliate links.
While I’ve shared in the past how to make small thread tassels, as well as a yarn tassel garland, leather tassels are quite different.
Instead of tying off a bundle of string, you are rolling up some fringe. But how do you do it exactly? In this tutorial, I will show you how to make leather tassels that look beautiful and polished.
Leather vs. Faux Leather
Leather is one of my favorite materials to make tassels from, mainly because of how many options there are for material variations.
First, let’s talk the base.
The dark silver leather that I used here is actually felt-backed faux leather. It’s a thick material with a fabric-like quality.
The green one is made from genuine leather – a pretty thick scrap sheet. I like to purchase my leather for small projects in scrap packs. I can then go and choose a favorite one for each project I choose to make. You can see that it’s stiffer than the faux leather, and doesn’t flair out as much.
Each type of leather or faux leather that you choose for your leather tassel can have a different result! Some faux leathers are paper-like, and you’ll need to cut them into tiny fringe to have any “movement”. You’ll need much more to make a thick roll.
So, as you learn how to make leather tassels, you WILL want to experiment and see what works best size-wise and lengthwise for your material.
How to make leather tassels with different types of trim
You’ll also see that I finished off the leather tassels in this post using different materials. One of the fun parts of leather tassel making is that you can really play with your accent materials, getting a gorgeous multi-textured result that is so not boring!
It’s one of the more creative materials to use for tassels, since you can combine it and make it a beautiful craft on its own.
On the green “real” leather tassel, I used off-white lace ribbon to trim out the top. I used thin ricrac trim in a similar color to make the loop. It looks just fabulous. I used a different material (not leather) for the loop, since my leather was pretty stiff, and I wanted the loop to be a bit softer.
The different fabrics soften the look of leather and make it a bit shabby chic, but without losing its class.
On the dark silver faux leather tassel, I used studded leather trim.
It gives the metallic base a glamourous finish, with the very white leather and the gold studs.
I made the loop from the same faux leather, as it’s very strong, flexible, and gives things a cleaner look. I did not measure well, and my final tassels have slightly different sized loops.
How to use the leather tassels
I stuck the green pair on a keychain and attached it to my handbag, to dress it up a bit. You can make these in small for jewelry, in large for home decor like curtain ties, and in between for handbag bling!
I like to add leather tassels to my acrylic keychains that I make with my Cricut. While the keychains I use come with leather tassels, these are much more unique and would make them even more special.
Whatever you’re learning how to make leather tassels for, don’t forget to allow yourself to be creative and experiment! This is just the project for that!
What you need to make leather tassels
- Good scissors
- A ruler and chalk to mark (or a washable fabric marker works if your material is light colored)
- Hot glue gun – check out my best hot glue guns for crafts here.
- Trim: studded leather trim, lace ribbon, ricrac all work
How to Make Leather Tassels – Step by Step
Watch the video or scroll past for written steps with photos:
1. Measure a length of leather about 5 inches wide and the height you want your tassel to be (mine is about one inch)
2. If you want, you can mark the increments that you want your fringe to be cut at. You really don’t need to – it won’t be too hard to be consistent with sizing, and it’s forgiving.
3. Mark the spot that you’ll be cutting until. You’re making this the distance from the top that you want your connected top “trim” portion to be.
4. Cut your fringe.
5. Glue one one side of the loop to the edge of the top part of the fringe. This will be your starting point for rolling up your tassel.
Fold it over and glue to form a loop.
6. Start rolling your tassel, keeping the top edge as aligned as possible and gluing as you go along (I try to glue once or twice on each layer). Don’t glue too much as you’ll end up with some bulk from the thick glue.
7. Keep going until you reach the end and secure with glue just at the top level, not where the fringe is.
8. Attach your trim. I recommend keeping the “seam” of your trim (where it stops and starts) aligned with the seam of your rolled fringe.
9. My leather one was cut to 3.5×1.5 inches , with a half inch top portion. I free-formed the fringe, cutting it very small. I’m showing this mainly to showcase the variation, that you can really experiment! The loop ribbon was cut to 3 inches.
You have successfully learned how to make leather tassels! What will you be using yours for? Comment below!
How to Make Leather Tassels
Materials
- Leather scraps or faux leather sheets
- Scissors
- A ruler and chalk to mark (or a washable fabric marker works if your material is light colored)
- Hot glue gun
- Trim: studded leather trim, lace ribbon, ricrac all work
Instructions
1. Measure a length of leather about 5 inches wide and the height you want your tassel to be
2. If you want, you can mark the increments that you want your fringe to be cut at. You really don't need to - it won't be too hard to be consistent with sizing, and it's forgiving.
3. Mark the spot that you'll be cutting until. You're making this the distance from the top that you want your connected top "trim" portion to be.
4. Cut your fringe.
5. Glue one one side of the loop to the edge of the top part of the fringe. This will be your starting point for rolling up your tassel. Fold it over and glue to form a loop.
6. Start rolling your tassel, keeping the top edge as aligned as possible and gluing as you go along (I try to glue once or twice on each layer). Don't glue too much as you'll end up with some bulk from the thick glue.
7. Keep going until you reach the end and secure with glue just at the top level, not where the fringe is.
8. Attach your trim. I recommend keeping the "seam" of your trim (where it stops and starts) aligned with the seam of your rolled fringe.
9. My leather one was cut to 3.5x1.5 inches , with a half inch top portion. I free-formed the fringe, cutting it very small. I'm showing this mainly to showcase the variation, that you can really experiment! The loop ribbon was cut to 3 inches.
