Fringe Benefits

I had a tee-shirt. It had faded, and to be honest, since I began losing weight, it had felt rather baggy and shapeless. But on Sunday, I changed into it after church [having learned the hard way never to prepare Sunday lunch in my Posh Preaching Gear] And I made a salad dressing by combining stuff in a screwtop jar and shaking it like mad. Only I had not screwed the top on properly [this is why I change clothes] Tee-shirt irrevocably stained. Tried all remedies – but finally admitted defeat.

This shot only shows part of the staining. Believe me, it was bad!

However, my latest issue of Mollie Makes had an article about fringes, and how to turn an old tee into a new fringed cowl neck scarf.

So Monday afternoon I decided to try it out, figuring I had nothing to lose. Carefully followed instructions and attacked tee-shirt with dressmaking scissors.

The instructions say

1-take tee-shirt

2-cut across under arms

3-Start fringing, start 1cm in and cut straight up to about halfway, keeping ribbons equal in width and length.

4- make sure all strips same length

5-Stick it on, sit back, bask in the glory of compliments.

IMPORTANT NOTE – the pictures show – but the instructions do not explicitly state – that between steps 2 and 3, you turn it upside down, so the hemmed edge is at the top, and you are cutting through the raw edge. Fortunately I spotted this before I began cutting.

I asked Bob to photograph me wearing it. As for ‘basking in the glory of compliments’, what he actually said was “You look like you are wearing a cut-up tee-shirt round your neck” You can’t win ‘em all!

This is issue 3 of MollieMakes- I have one more to arrive in my 3 for £5 offer. I do not think I shall buy any more after that, at £4.99 an issue. It is very pretty – but I felt there were way too many adverts [more than a third of the mag] in proportion to craft instructions. And 5% of the pages were just ads for MollieMakes itself.

I think I am being a little picky – it is aimed at younger women than myself. I had hoped that ‘thrifting’ meant ‘using what you already have to create stuff’ as opposed to the MM definition - ‘buying it in a thrift store and making it your own’ [btw MM, here in the UK we tend to call them Charity Shops – or maybe Pound Shops]

If MM turns younger girls, [like my Sewing Club crowd], into diligent crafters, then that is a good thing. But the products they advertise in the articles [without displaying their prices] seem way too expensive for me – and won’t teach younger girls to budget properly.

The ‘Nice’ teatowel is £12.50 [page 38], the ‘Tandem’ cushion is £50 [page 71], and the fringed dress is £195 [page 16].

All very cute – but not in my price bracket!

I checked out the Penny Sweets cushion which has a 10% MollieMakes discount. [p39] At only £31.50 instead of £34.99. I am still not buying it!

If you want a real bargain, check out the glorious Fraise Lachrymose blog where for a donation to Christian Aid, Mags will send you a MollieMakes apple cosy, at half the price of similar ones from Clothkits. That is crafting at its best if you ask me – sharing your skills in a way that really benefits other people.