Anyone who sews, especially dressmakers, will know that its very rarely possible to use 100% of the piece of fabric that you have bought for your project. By their very nature clothes often have odd shaped pattern pieces, so once you have cut out your project there will always be random pieces of fabric left over. If you sew a lot, like me, you will quickly end up with a big pile of fabric scraps which you don’t know what to do with.
I have spent years getting frustrated and overwhelmed by my fabric scraps – not wanting to throw them away and waste them but instead trying to think of ways to re-purpose them into something useful! So here are my top seven suggestions on how to make the most of your scraps and avoid them going to landfill!
1. Scrunchies
If you have reasonably long strips of fabrics then you could make some hair scrunchies! Maybe even one to match each of your handmade outfits. The best tutorial I have found for scrunchies is this one by Made to Sew on YouTube
2. Schools
I don’t have any experience of this one but I know that some schools take fabric scraps for students to use in art and textile lessons. So you could check out your local school and see if they will accept yours.
3. Buttons
I use tiny bits of fabric to make fabric covered buttons. Like the ones above in my Etsy shop. These are very easy and quick to make and can be used to replace old buttons on clothes or to brighten up a cushion or curtain tie, for example. There are lots of tutorials on making these on YouTube if you do a quick search.
4. Bias binding
This takes a bit more time but is a great way to make something from your scraps that you can use with other sewing projects. It can sometimes be difficult to find the bias grain on a scrap of fabric (45 degrees from the selvedge) but once you have found it, cut out your strips, sew them together and press them into binding. Again, lots of good tutorials on YouTube so I won’t go into more detail here.
5. Cleaning cloths
I honestly haven’t bought any cleaning cloths for over a year now. I just put all my really random un-usable scraps into a bag in one of my kitchen cupboards and pull one out each time I want to clean my surfaces. Admittedly, some fabrics are more effective than others at this but all do a fairly good job at keeping my kitchen and bathroom clean.
6. Bags
As well as sewing clothes, I also love to make bags! Make up bags, clutch bags, cosmetic bags, wallets, etc etc! Lots of the reasonable size scraps left over after cutting out dress projects can be made into bags and there are lots of lovely patterns out there that you can use. For example, www.sewsweetness.com , www.pinkponydesign.com , www.emmalinebags.com
I now have a shop on The British Craft House where I sell all of the bags that I sew from my fabric scraps.
7. Sell them on Etsy
If you want to make a bit of money from your scraps you could consider selling them on Etsy or another platform where you can sell crafting supplies. There are lots of people out there that are looking for scrap fabrics for any number of reasons and what is your waste may be someone else’s treasure….as the saying goes!
I’m sure there are many, many other uses that I haven’t mentioned here but hopefully these seven have got your mind ticking over on how you can put your scraps to good use instead of them going in the bin!
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