Product Review - Fabeffex

After seeing the catchy commercial for Fab Effex, I decided I had to try it for myself. The commercial states that it is fabric that you can shape, stick and wrap. And, it is reusable. The one selling point that really got me was that it "molds like clay and sticks like glue" (okay that is two selling points). Regardless, I was interested.

When the package arrived, I quickly opened it. I love anything crafty and I was excited about this new type of crafting material. I was still excited when I opened everything up - to touch the fabric pieces that felt thick and bendable. Each piece is fabric with a thick coat of wax on the back (about 1/8 to 1/4" of wax).

I was quickly deflated when children actually used the product. To start off with it is bendable and moldable but no one could think of anything to do with it. Well it came with a project book with ideas. This is where the real problems started. The project book had ideas with no to little directions. Tears started flowing rather quickly. "I can't make this" before they even started. I was quite surprised. This is a group of kids who are creative and enjoy crafting. Rarely do I hear I can not do something. They tried creating a few different animals without success. They tried thinking up their own items - a hair bow, a fake Popsicle (see below) and a ring (using the plastic

ring holder to attach the wax fabric to). The hair bow did not "glue" to the bobby pin at all. The fake popsicle was okay but not reusable. When they tried to take it apart the wax peeled off of the fabric. The plastic ring holder did not even hold the waxy fabric on - this resulted in tears and a full body meltdown at this point. The Popsicle also resulted in tears because it was not nearly as nice as some of the animals pictured in the project book.

Overall, I give this product a big thumbs down. The children definitely did not enjoy using it. Perhaps it would encourage fine motor skill development since many of the pieces were very small to pick up off the table and if the kids were not so angry. In terms of it "molding like clay" not even close! The only thing this product succeeded at was frustrating the children.