Carolyn Pearce Home Sweet Home workbox 30: making the tassel, and then the tape measure cover is finished!

The tape measure cover from Carolyn Pearce’s book ‘Home Sweet Home; an embroidered workbox’ is almost finished – I only needed to make the tassel for the actual tape measure now. I got together all the beads that I’d need, to match the scissor keeper that I’d previously made. They included two ‘mirror finish’ green beads, an 8mm cloisonne bead, a 9mm bicone gold bead, three little gold spacer beads and an olive green seed bead for the very end, all from my stash.

In her book, Carolyn suggests making the tassel using beading wire, but that assumes that you have a tape measure where you can get the plastic bit off the end first. With mine, I couldn’t do that. So I had to incorporate the white plastic bit, which wasn’t ideal, but I came up with a cunning plan.

I threaded the beads onto a length of Anchor stranded cotton first (2 strands), going through all beads once, then going back up the line through all except the seed bead at the end. Then, taking the two ends of Anchor thread, I threaded them in opposite directions though the loop at the end of the tape measure, tied them in a knot at the back, and glued the ends down on the reverse side of the plastic tab. Then I stuck a sequin on each side of the plastic tab, to disguise what I’d done. As I say, it wasn’t ideal, but I’m fairly pleased with how it looks. Here’s the back, before sticking the sequin on:

This is the front, before sticking the sequin on to hide the green Anchor thread.

So, now the tape measure cover is complete, and, despite the hiccups, I’m pleased with how it has turned out.

It’s a good addition to the collection of smalls.

This is the reverse, showing the little strawberry flower.

And here’s the sequin, disguising the thread that ties on the tassel.

Pretty, isn’t it?

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