I never met a tassel I didn’t love. So when I stumbled upon a ridiculously affordable lot of colorful, cotton tassels, I immediately snatched some up without even knowing what I’d do with them. But of course, it never takes long to find a reason to incorporate tassels into my life. And my recent need for any kind of shortcut jumped a potential tassel project to the front of my DIY queue. With summer in full force, adding a cascading string of vibrant tassels to my favorite beach bag was a no brainer. And done in 20 minutes, tops?! Yes.

You’ll need:

• assorted colored cotton tassels
• 1 yard of hemp twine
• seam ripper
• embroidery needle

Ashese cotton tassels I recently discovered – you get 10 tassels for about 8 bucks. And these days, I’m all about shortcuts! But if you want to make your own tassels, you can follow this tutorial here. With a seam ripper, remove the string attached to the top of each tassel.

Tie a double knot at the end of the twine. Thread the other end through an embroidery needle and push it through the bottom of a tassel.

Pull the twine through until it stops at your double knot. Tie another double knot about an inch from the top of the tassel.

Thread on another tassel and push it down until it hits the double knot. Continue adding knots and tassels until you’ve reached the desired amount of tassels for one side. Once you’re ready to start the other side, leave 3 inches from the top of the last tassel and the following knot.

This time, you’ll thread the tassel on from the top and then tie a double knot. Continue adding tassels and tying double knots until you’ve reached the desired length. Trim away any access twine.

Tie the charm around the handle of any bag . . . and boom! Your bag accessory is summer ready.

(images by HonestlyWTF; straw bag available here)