DIY Graduation Tassel

     A lot of colleges and universities, including my school, the University of Maine, are moving courses online for the remainder of the semester due to COVID-19.  It is uncertain at this time whether many schools will be able to hold commencement, but there is a good chance that a formal commencement will not be in the cards for some if not most 2020 graduates.  I know this is frustrating for many of us - I've been looking forward to earning and celebrating my PhD for years now, especially since Brian and I were hoping to walk together at graduation.  However, there still is room for celebration, just on a much smaller scale.  Today I'm going to show you how I made some tassels for UMaine's mini graduation ceremony, aka Coronamencement.

Me with my tassel.

     While I dug out my old Master's cap for the Coronamencement, I saw a lot of clever caps from people who didn't have access to an official school cap.  Some people bought graduation caps from Party City, while others made caps by attaching cardboard to baseball caps.  A friend of mine donned a blue bathrobe as a substitute graduation robe.

Brian had to work, so he couldn't make it to Coronamencement, but I made him a tassel anyway.

At Coronamencement.

     I know many 2020 graduates won't get any graduation celebration, official or unofficial, and certainly not on the scale of Coronamencement.  That sucks.  But even though you may not have a tremendous audience, your accomplishments are still worth celebrating.  When graduation day comes, have a virtual ceremony with your friends and family.  DIY tassels, caps, and robes with objects you have around the house, or wear a nice outfit.  I'm sorry for all of us that this is how our academic careers are coming to an end, but we have accomplished something big nonetheless, and you have every right to be proud of that.

Materials:

*Yarn
*Scissors
*Glittery cardstock
*Die cutting machine or X-acto knife

Directions:

*To make the "2020" for your tassel, use the template below or one of your own design to cut a "2020" from gold cardstock.  You could either use a die cutting machine or scissors and an X-acto knife to make it.

*Take yarn in a color of your choice and wind it around your hand about 16 times, like this:

*Carefully slide the yarn off your hand.

*Cut off a length of yarn long enough to serve as the string that fastens your tassel to your cap.  Mine were about 17" long.

*Slide the piece of yarn through your wound yarn and knot the ends together.

*Cut off a shorter length of yarn, about 6", and slip it through the end of your "2020" tag.

*Tie the piece of yarn around your wound yarn, up toward the top.

*Cut open the bottom of the wound yarn to create the tassel shapes.  Trim as needed.