PRODUCTION AND TESTING OF SELECTED CLOTHING ACCESSORIES MADE USING MACRAMÉ AS OFFICE WEARS FOR FEMALE UNIVERSITY STAFF IN NORTH EAST NIGERIA

The study was on” Production and testing of selected clothing accessories made using macramé for female university staff in North East Nigeria”. The main objective of the study was to produce and test some selected clothing accessories made using macramé for female university staff in North East, Nigeria. To guide the study; three objectives and three research questions were formulated. The study was delimited to three universities offering Home Economics in Northeast Nigeria, square knots and larks knots of macramé techniques were used to produce tote bags, slippers, necklaces, earrings and watch straps. Thirty (30) female staff were used to carry out the study, these were selected using the purposeful random sampling techniques. The instrument of data collection was a self-structured assessment card titled “Assessment card for rating of clothing accessories produced using macramé” (ACRCCPUM). The instrument was face and content validated by experts and the reliability was determined using Fleiss kappa. A pilot study was carried out with 4 female staff from the Department of Home Economics, Federal College of Education, Yola and it yielded a reliability coefficient (K) of 0.764, indicating good agreement. The data for the study was collected by the researcher and two research assistants. Thirty assessment cards were given alongside the produced clothing accessories to the 30 models to use; that are academic and non-academic staff and all the 30 assessment cards were collected back after two weeks from the three universities and all were valid, which were subjected to data analysis. The research questions were answered using mean, simple percentage and frequency table. Items with a mean of 75 and above were considered as good per the decision rule. Findings showed that; the clothing accessories produced using Macramé were comfortable with 54.2%, fitted with 87.8% and accepted for use as office wears with 85.8%. It was recommended among others therefore that; female university staff should be encouraged to use clothing accessories made using macramé techniques since they are comfortable, fitting and accepted for use as office wears which will improve their appearance.