How To Manage Fabric Scraps
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No sewing enthusiasts starts a project wondering what they will do with the fabric scraps. Yet, this is the number one question everyone has after purchasing expensive fabric and cutting out a project.
At the end of each project, there’s a big bile of scrap fabric. This fabric is too small for making something else.
Yet, it’s still useful for something.
Knit fabric scraps…
…are wonderful to use for neck, arm, and waistbands on garments. When cut on the bias, these small scraps provide just the right amount of stretch for these kinds of projects. While smaller knit scraps are ideal for “borders,” larger scraps are good for making baby onesies, underwear, head bands, and even chunky yarn for crochet projects.
Woven quilting cotton fabric scraps
Woven fabric scraps are more versatile because they are useful on a wider variety of sewing projects. With quilting cotton, you can:
- Use pieces to make quilt blocks
- Sew all scraps onto a roll of cash register tape for use on future projects
- Iron the fabric scraps onto heat and bond light and then free motion or zigzag all the fabric edges down to prevent fraying. The new fabric is usable on a wide variety of sewing projects.
Denim or other thick material scraps
I use denim and canvas fabric scraps to make backpacks. Occasionally, I will use denim scraps to make pockets for jeans. Or, I’ll use the scraps to make 5 gallon bucket storage for tools.
Storage & Organization
When you commit to keeping fabric scraps, you must collect a large pile of them before use. This means you’ll need a place to store them. I categorize my scraps by overall size and fabric type.
The woven fabrics all go in grocery bags according to size small, medium, and large. Large woven scraps become bias tape. Medium scraps are used for quilt blocks. And when I’m feeling lazy, medium scraps are sewing onto a piece of cash register tape. Last and not least, small scraps get quilted onto 10 inch x 10 inch blocks of heat and bond light for future projects.
Garbage collection
Many sewing lovers, including myself, have limited space to sew. This makes it very difficult to hold onto a tremendous amount of scrap fabric. For this reason, I only allow myself to keep 5 grocery bags worth of scrap fabric. 5 bags is enough to sew up a project. Beyond 5 bags is just too much for my space. So, I take those scraps to a local recycling center.
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