Have you noticed how pom-poms are showing up everywhere all of a sudden? Big poofy pom-poms made of tissue paper! Felt pom-pom garlands! Bobble fringe trim on clothes and curtains! I am totally loving it! A few weeks ago, I saw a fantastic scarf trimmed with bobble fringe online and I knew I had to make one. Then not even a week after that, I found this scarf when I was browsing at Paper Source and immediately set out to find the materials to put this baby together.
It was an incredibly simple project that went like this:
Buy scarf.
Buy bobble fringe.
Sew bobble fringe onto scarf.
If you need more details on the sewing part, you can see what I did in this picture. I hand sewed the fringe onto the scarf with a simple overcast stitch. It took me two episodes of Top Chef and the season premier of Biggest Loser to do it — not too bad.
I love how it turned out! The colors are so crazy and bright that I can’t help feel anything but cheerful when I wear it. It’s the perfect way to brighten up a dreary winter day.
You know, there’s a funny story about that Paper Source scarf. It was priced at $29.95 and though I loved it, I thought, “Pshhhhh! I can make that myself for much less!” So a few days later I stopped by the fabric store looking for fabric I could use for a scarf. Nothing. Nothing at all. But then a few days after that I was at Target and I saw a bright pink scarf for a mere $10. Score!
I went back to the fabric store for bobble fringe and found it was $1 per foot. Hmmmm. My scarf was two yards long and half a yard wide. That meant I needed 15 feet of fringe plus another foot for wiggle room. For those of you who aren’t doing the math as you go along, let me help you out:
| Scarf: | $10.00 |
| Fringe: | + $16.00 |
| ———— | |
| Total: | $26.00 |
That’s a stunning savings of $3.95 off the price of the (larger) scarf from Paper Source, not to mention the time I took to get the materials and hand sew all the fringe on.
Does anyone besides me ever do this?? You see something you love, decide you could make it for less and then spend almost as much (or more) on the materials to make it? Please tell me I’m not alone in this!
In these situations, I find it’s helpful to remind myself that saving money is only one of the many reasons I enjoy crafting. There’s a lot to be said for relaxing with some sewing and the satisfaction of producing something you love with your own two hands. Right?
