DIY Tassel Mirror - Retro Rainbow

I came across this mirror that had been tucked away for so many years and had to do something to give it new life. It is is nice, simple mirror but needed a refresh. I love mid-century colors and my daughter loves rainbows so I decided to make her a retro rainbow colored DIY tassel mirror for her room.

Below are the supplies I used for to make my DIY tassel mirror. Let me show you how I did it!

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Supplies

Mirror (Mine is 18″ in diameter and came with the ability to hang it. If you need to purchase a mirror I recommend using a smaller mirror around 12″ so you do not have to make as many tassels. I found this option that comes with hanging hardware but not in the most ideal spot or this one that you would need to add backing hardware to.)
Stylecraft Special DK Yarn (Copper, Blush, and Gold x1 each)
Off White Tweed Yarn (1)
Scissors (You can really use any scissors but sharper sewing scissors will work best)
Template to wrap the yarn around (I used the top to my colored pencils. You could make the template out of cardboard if needed)
Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks
Backing to support the tassels (this can be cardboard, foam or 1/4″ thin plywood like we used)
Gorilla Tape

Here is a video that goes over all of the steps. Then read below for more details.

Step 1: Template

I made a cardboard template first. It will work but getting the yarn underneath to tie it off will be a bit harder. I then found my colored pencil tin. The top was perfect as it gave me space to tie the yarn before cutting. This will make sense after you start making your tassels.

Step 2: Make the Tassels

I wrapped my yarn around 40 times. That’s about 193″ of yarn if you wanted to double wrap it 20 times (yep I measured it).

Then, cut a piece of yarn about 12″ long. This will become the “tail” as I am calling it. Thread it underneath the wrapped yarn on the side of your template where there is space (the underside of the tin in my case) and tie a knot.

Flip over your template and cut the yarn free from the template in the center.

Hold the tassel up by the two longer pieces you created the knot with earlier. Smooth out all the yarn.

Cut another piece of yarn. Tie that around the tassel and knot to create the rounded part at the top. My rounded part is about 1″ long, I eyeballed it. As you will see they are not all identical. Trim to make the ends even. My tassels ended up being about 3.5″ total in length (not including the tail). Do not cut the tail. You will need this in the next step.

Step 3: Glue Tassels to the Mirror

Turn your mirror over. You can arrange your tassels how you want now or as you go. Glue the tassels by the two long strings you tied that first knot with with a hot glue gun. I trimmed the tails a bit as mine were really long. Go around the entire mirror making sure the tassels are touching closely so you don’t see your backing later.

I then went around and trimmed the tassels to make them all even.

Step 4: Measure or trace to make your backing

We did not have any large pieces of cardboard and the foam at the stores was going to be too small for our mirror. We had leftover 1/4″ thick plywood in the garage so we measured from the top to the bottom including the newly glued on tassels. It was a little over 24″. We cut our backing slightly smaller than this. We cut a hole out in the middle about 7″ from the outer circle so that we would still be able to hang the mirror.

Step 5: Glue backing to the tassels

Quickly glue the backing to the tassels and press down. This will help support them. This was tricky with a hot glue gun since it dries so quickly and I ran out of glue a couple of times and had to load more. I had to go back and put more hot glue on after as I show in the video.