I was recently looking for some simple curtain tiebacks, but I didn’t find any that I thought fit the look I was going for. Then I thought why not make my own?!
So using my trusty 24-ply cotton string, I made some macrame curtain ties with cute tassels to match. And of course, I’m sharing this with you so you can make your own! If you’ve never done macrame before, don’t worry this is a really simple knot.
Let’s jump right into the pattern:
step 1|| measure out two pieces of string to about 4 ft each. You may need longer depending on how long your curtain tie needs to be. It’s best to cut the strings longer because when you start knotting it shortens your strings.
step 2|| fold the two strings in half at the middle and tie in a single knot, creating a loop that will be used as our closure for the curtain tie.
step 3|| begin tying square knots using the four strands under the loop you created. You’ll want to tie the square knots to the length of the curtain tie back that you need. To give you an idea, I made mine about 15 inches long with some extra string at the end to pull through the loop (we’ll talk about this more later). Depending on how bulky your curtains are you will want to make your tie back shorter or longer to gather all the fabric. Here are the steps to the square knot (and my original post with more pictures on the process):
- I selected 4 strands out of my fringe.
- taking the far left string (colored blue), pass it over the two middle strings and under the far left string (colored pink).
- take the pink string and bring it behind the two middle strings and over to the left.
- pass the pink string through the loop made by the blue string on the left side. This is your first knot.
- take the blue string from the right side, pass it over the front of the two middle strings and under the pink string.
- bring the pink string behind the two middle strings.
- pass the pink string through the loop the blue string made.
- pull the pink and blue strings tight until they tie into a knot. Make sure to control all your strings while you pull the knot tight so that they tie evenly. You have made a square knot!
step 4|| once your first strand of square knots is done, tie it off in a single knot at the end. Next we’ll make a second strand of square knots.
step 5|| to make your second strand, cut four more pieces of cotton string. I cut mine to about 2.5 ft long. In this second strand you want to tie the four strings into the same amount of square knots plus one more square knot so that it hangs a little bit lower then the first strand. Also you’ll need about 3 inches of string on both ends that we’ll use to finish our curtain tie.
step 6|| taking the second strand of knots, pull the middle two strands through the front middle of the first strands end, then flip both strands over to the back and square knot these second strands to secure it to the first strand. Repeat this on the other end of the first strand.
step 7|| after you have secured the second strand to the first, braid the four strands together and tie off in a single knot. To braid the four threads, I just used two threads as if it were a single and did a three thread braid. You can braid this in anyway you want, the goal is to combine these threads so that we can hang a tassel off them. You’ll want to braid both sides of the second strand ends and also the one side of the first strand end. We’ll make tassels for all three of these ends.
step 8|| next cut some pieces of string to make your tassels. You’ll want these strings to be twice as long because we will fold them over to get more volume on our tassels. I cut my strings to 9 inches and used 20 strings. The amount of strings you use in your tassels will give it more or less volume, so pick the amount that you like.
step 9|| find the middle of your tassel strings and them to the braid using a string. I tied a loose knot at first and then spread the tassel strings around the braid so that the braid is in the middle. Next Tie the string very tightly, then looped it around the tassel strings a few times and tie tightly again. Then fold the tops of the tassel strings down and you’ll have the start of your tassel.
step 10|| I next untwisted my cotton string tassel because I like the look of the small cotton strands.
step 11|| once my strands were untwisted, I then took a string and tied it around the top of the tassel. Again tying it really tightly, looping it around and tying it really tightly again. With the end of the strands I pulled them behind the wrapped tassel and let them hang with the rest of the untwisted threads.
step 12|| Last I trimmed the bottom of the tassel to have a clean edge. For the tassel on the first knotted strand, I made the tassel hang a bit lower then the second strand tassels because it looks nicer when hanging and the three tassels are grouped together. To close your curtain tie, you pass the end tassel through the loop and let it hang.
This is a really nice and fun curtain tie that is really easy to make too! If you make one yourself, let me know. I love to see what you all make.
Happy Weaving!
Kate
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