DIY – Jersey Spaghetti Necklace Scarf – Lipstick, Lettuce & Lycra

Ethical Design Spotlight – Kapow Wow Objects

August 27, 2009

Back to School

September 1, 2009

Published by Retro Chick at August 31, 2009

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Last week I wrote about the fabulous Kapow Wow Objects, and in particular my favourite piece the black spaghetti necklace.

Sadly the chances of me having £120 to spend on a scarf are pretty small right now, so I decided to have a go at a DIY jersey spaghetti scarf.

At a Boot Fair this morning I spent the grand total of £2 on 4 black T Shirts (in the end I only used 3, so I could have saved myself 50p)

I trawled trough the junk drawers in my house (and there are many) and found a selection of old key-rings to use as fastenings and I put down a sheet so I didn’t cover the floor in black fluff.

equipment

Laying each T Shirt flat I cut along the bottom of each making jersey loops, which I then snipped into long strips.

cutting

I cut in varying widths to give a more textured feel to the final scarf. The width of the initial strip is about a 4 times the final curled width, so an inch wide strip, once curled produces a 1/4″ wide strand. I didn’t worry too much about straight edges as once curled it’s not really noticeable, and adds to the finished effect on the scarf. Stretching each cut strip length ways produces the curl.

curling

Once I’d finished cutting across the body of all 3 T shirts I was left with a bundle of jersey strips and a white sheet covered in black fluff (if you want to try this I REALLY recommend covering the floor)

strands

I then took the silver ring from one of the key rings and looped each strand around it, keeping one end shorter than the other so I had plenty of length to play with.

looping

I layered the looped strands over each other, working round the ring until it was full and I had a clump of strands.

Next I used my dummy to arrange the strands on the neck to the lenth I wanted. I needed some tighter to the neck and others looser, so, once adjusted, I placed a hair clasp about an inch below where I would need to fasten the second ring. I then started tying the strands onto a second key ring.

knotting

This was a little fiddly to do and keep close to the clip, and I’m not going to pretend it was quick, this took me a couple of hours to do all in all. It wasn’t complicated, however, so I spent an enjoyable Bank Holiday afternoon watching Mousetrap whilst I did it. (It’s a terrible film, you probably shouldn’t make a special effort to see it.)

Once I’d finished it was just a case of tidying up and snipping off any loose ends on one side, then adding a clasp that I took from my favourite Halloween keyring. Scary huh?

clasp

I clipped it to the silver ring from yet ANOTHER keyring (why do I have so many key-rings in my house? Who knows?)

And did some final tidying up on the dummy.

Et voila. My attempt at a spaghetti scarf

finished

I plan to wear it as a scarf come Autumn. Whilst I can feel Autumn in the air it’s actually still way too hot for my coat, so I was quite toasty posing for these pictures, but I’m really pleased with how it came out and I think it works really well as a scarf.

spaghettiscarf