Do you hate to throw fabric scraps away? At $12 or more per yard, most of us think twice about just pitching our cut offs. But then, what do you do with them?
Do you keep them? If so, how do you store them? Are they sorted by size, color, type? What can you make with them? Bonnie has shared how she organizes fabrics so let’s explore organizing scraps.
What to Keep
I tend to keep anything I think I may be able to use in a future project. Much of what I embroider is applique so even small pieces of fabric, batting, and GlitterFlex will work.
I like to use the clear protective sheets to hold GlitterFlex scraps and will go to them first before cutting a new sheet.
For fabrics, I clip off points of pieces that are not usable and keep the rest. I do the same with batting, fusible fleece, and felt.
Stabilizer scraps are kept as well. They can be used as a bandage for patching stabilizer holes and adding extra support to embroidery when necessary. Even the smallest of pieces can be useful, especially water-soluble adhesive stabilizer (which can be quite costly). See how to turn WSS scraps into stiffening spray here.
How to Sort Scraps
I keep my fabric scraps in small, labeled boxes. Most are sorted by the type of fabric. I keep felt, batting, stabilizer, fleece, GlitterFlex vinyl, and quilting cottons in separate boxes.
If you have room, I have also seen stitchers use large clear jars to hold their scraps. That can add a bit of color to your sewing room.
Rather than sorting through the entire container of scraps, you may have them divided into small, medium, and large sizes. Some pieces are better for applique while others could be incorporated into scrappy quilt blocks.
You can also sort by color family, as in all your blues and greens in one box, naturals in another. Group however it makes the most sense to you.
In case you are interested, the fabric line featured in this blog is Sunflower Garden by Holly Taylor for Moda.
How do you sort and store your scraps and how do you determine which scraps to save?
Debbie Henry
Sew Inspired By Bonnie
Bonnie Welsh - June 26, 2023
Roz—Did you see Debbie’s response to Sharon? Seems that would work nicely. =)
Roz arnold - June 26, 2023
Same question as Sharon Jones
Debbie Henry - August 16, 2022
Sharon, I have seen where some print out the contents of the drive, slip it in a plastic sheet protector, add the drive (mark the drive to match the sheet protector) and put it in a binder. Always have another backup, like an external hard drive or save it in the cloud, because flash drives often eventually fail.
Sharon Jones - August 09, 2022
Debbie, do you have any ideas on storing a flash drive and printed pictures of the projects on the drive?
Thank you, Sharon Jones