We had our Fourth of July picnic a little early this year to accommodate everyone’s schedules, and I made these red, white and blue tassels to hang on my patio umbrellas to add some patriotism to our picnic. I started with a piece of fabric I picked up for a dollar at my local mission.

I started cutting out strips, around 1 inch in size, and being that my fabric was striped, I just cut along the lines.

After all the cutting, I was left with 30 strips of red and white fabric.

We have a bunch of building materials left over from our home building projects, so I grabbed some PVC pipe and asked my hubby to cut them to size.

To have all the tassels be the same size I went with the smaller pieces and divided the strips up evenly, three per piece of pipe.

I also used these metal rings, which you can find in any craft store, or just check your craft stash, I am sure you are hoarding some somewhere!

I purchased some white clothesline from Walmart. This was the cheapest option for me, but feel free to use what you like.

And of course, Duck Tape!!!  Jo-Annes had a sale at the time, so I bought white and blue.

Now I was are ready to glue the tassels together.  I started with holding the pipe and draping the fabric evenly over it, centering the pipe on the fabric, then used a dab of hot glue to hold it in place.

Then I grab another piece and did the same thing again to cover the other side.Now when I added the third piece of fabric, I threaded a ring thru before gluing, that way I could attach the rope to it later.

I glued this piece just like the last two, rotating it just a bit so the fabrics didn’t overlap too much.  I then added a bit of glue to the ring so it didn’t shift too much.

Now as far as the taping, I just tore a whole bunch of small bits of tape and covered the top first, then added a large piece around the whole top.

This wasn’t going to be perfect, have you tried to cut duck tape?  I just covered the fabric so it didn’t peak thru the tape.

After all the gluing and taping, I cut large pieces of the clothesline and tied it onto the rings.

(This is about the time I started getting all giddy and jumping up and down because of how well they turned out.)

I have three navy umbrellas on my patio, so I hung three tassels on each one, they looked so great!

I love how these turned out, they have been up for almost a week now and have survived all the rain we have had lately.

If I had the time, I would have ironed the fabric before I cut it because some of my pieces were a little wrinkly.

This is the first time I have ever used Duck Tape for a craft, and now that I have a whole role of white tape left, I can’t wait to try something else!

The gluing, taping and hanging of the tassels took just under an hour to complete.  I had cut the fabric the night before.  I actually did this project about 2 hours before our guests were supposed to arrive, and took all the pictures in my kitchen.  Give this quick project a try and put your own spin on it, I would love to hear how it turns out!