Making the Most of Your Fabric Scraps -Earth Month Blog Hop
When you start looking into being a more sustainable quilter it can be overwhelming, from ethically sourced fabric, to reducing your carbon footprint and more. And like many things when the information becomes overwhelming it may feel easier to tune it out. While I am here to ask that rather than tune it out you pick one thing, (just one small change) that you can make to your current quilting habits to make them more sustainable. Small steps make a huge difference, and picking your one small step can be part of a much bigger impact.
So what exactly am I here to talk to you about? Well I am here to talk about how to make the most out of your fabric scraps. We all end up with scraps and for a wide variety of reasons:
You buy a little more fabric than the pattern says because, what if you cut something wrong and need more (I do this all the time)
Sometimes you buy the fabric before the project (been there too!)
A variety of construction methods leave leftover scraps (not everything can be no waste)
And sometimes you cut something out wrong and have leftovers (been here too)
Suffice it to say there are a wide range of reasons but everyone ends up with scrap fabric. Rather than throw it away or hoard it in a bin and forget about it, I suggest working through your scraps after you finish each project to make the most use out of them. You may be thinking, well why can’t I just wait and cut all of my scraps when I am ready to make my next scrap quilt? Well you absolutely can, but I would like you to consider a few numbers before going that route:
A Queen size quilt made with 2 ½” x 2 ½” squares requires approx. 2,000 squares
A Queen size postage stamp quilt (1 ½” x 1 ½” squares) requires approx. 8,000 squares
A Queen size quilt made with 1” hexagons requires approx. approx. 4,000 hexagons
Do you really want to be cutting all of those squares or hexagons at one time? Wouldn’t it be easier to build your stash up a little bit at a time and tame your scrap pile at the same time? With that in mind I have a few suggestions to make on how you can sort your scraps and make the most use of them.
First, you have to decide what type of quilting or sewing you do the most of, is it traditional piecing, English paper piecing (EPP), foundation paper piecing (FPP) or improv?
For those that primarily work on FPP and improv, having precut shapes doesn’t make a lot of sense, but sorting by color does. I would recommend breaking down your scraps into color groups (not too many or it gets overwhelming) and store them by color so you can pull out what colors you need when you need them. This will help you to cut back on having to buy additional fabric for small sections and allow you to reuse fabric that you previously loved. I always like this because it is a win-win keeping fabric out of landfills and money in your pocket.
For those that primarily work in traditional piecing or EPP, you are going to want to do a little more of a thorough sort. I would recommend pulling out any scraps that are an ⅛ yard or larger and leaving those intact, since there are patterns that call for ⅛ yard or so of fabric. I find typically that I get pieces this size from the backing when I am squaring off the quilt. Next up decide if there are any of the scraps that you want to fussy cut. Maybe there was a great pattern that you used in a project and you want to showcase just a little bit of it in another project. Those would be the next pieces to cut and work on. After that you just need to decide what size to cut your squares to. Right now I am preparing for a scrap quilt that needs 2 ½” squares so that is the size I am cutting to, but once I have enough I may very well switch to another size for another scrap project.
Then what can you do with the bits that are left? At this point it depends on what bits you have left. Batting which I haven’t talked about before can always be saved and turned into frankenbatting. A little note on fankenbatting, if you are worried that it is too “patchy” you can use it as the second layer with another standard piece of batting in any quilt that is going to be very tightly quilted to help maintain the thickness of the quilt without fear of it becoming cumbersome. But for any pieces that are too small you can collect them into a large bag (I have a pillowcase) and store them for stuffing in foot stools, floor pillows, and pet beds (you can find my tutorial here).
I hope you found these suggestions helpful and will consider using some of them going forward to help reduce how much of your scrap material gets thrown out. Remember you bought that fabric because you loved it, why not use it in a few more projects! I have a variety of patterns available free to my newsletter subscribers that make great use of fabric scraps, so sign up (don’t worry I only send out about two newsletters a month) and check out those free patterns. I will also be doing a livestream on Instagram today showing exactly how I sort my scraps and saving the video to my feed so make sure to check it out at @createdesignmake365. And while you are there make sure to like and comment on the giveaway post (it is a free pattern that is scrap friendly!).
For more great ideas on how to make your sewing practices more sustainable head over to the Sewing Scientist Blog for more great ideas!
Until next time, happy sewing!
-Siobhan
