Scraps

Hello again and a happy new year.

Scraps! The biggest problem in my sewing life. I have cupboards full of leftover scraps from sewing projects. Little bits that really aren’t going to be of any use for any project, but really shouldn’t go into the bin. Then there is the other bag which has bits which might be of some use for other projects….. One bag is so heavy that i struggle to lift it out of the cupboard now. I’ve offered them to the charity shop, who have taken them for the scrap man in the past, but didn’t want anything at my last time of offering. There is a Birmingham scrap store; conveniently, not all that far from where i live.. They don’t want them either. I really thought that outlet was going to work, but it didn’t. If anyone knows of any other worthy outlet for fabric scraps, please let me know. In fact, if you know what happens to fabric that goes into the textile bin at the tip, that would be useful information. I think these heavy bags might have to go there is the end.

Every now and then a project arises which can use some of the larger scraps.

Lavender bags

I’ve probably blogged about these before. I have become a repository for lavender from friends’ gardens. Which is great, but i am updating my blog in a break between separating the lavender florets from their stems. It’s a time consuming job, and has an ultimate level of tolerance for working on the task, when my nose is so full of lavender ‘dust’, that it runs a lot and i need to stop. But my dining room smells lovely!

I like to edge my bags with narrow lace, but i am running short of suppliers. There was a good stall on Birmingham market, but it has closed, and the others don’t have quite what i am looking for. Meanwhile, bags don’t have to have a lace edge….

Fabric for lavender bags should have a reasonably tight weave and some body. Luckily i have a reasonable supply of this type of fabric (mainly cotton). Bags do ‘age’ and can be refreshed (replaced) from time to time, so there is always an outlet for the product.

Bowl covers

I hadn’t thought of this one before, until a friend asked me for some when i visited at Christmas. Again, a woven fabric is necessary, but the fabric can be less robust. It needs to gather, after all. There are many videos on YouTube, but i went with my own ‘design’ using even more supplies that i already had in the house. I couldn’t believe how much elastic and bias binding i have accumulated over the years!

YouTube advice is to take the bowl diameter plus about 8cm as a basis for a circle of fabric. I actually used a compass to draw my circles, and cut out with pinking shears. I then edged the circle with bias binding., through which i threaded elastic. The elastic is tied in several tight knots tightly round the relevant bowl. Done! They take me 20 – 25 minutes each. But i don’t think that you can ‘ad lib’ the sizing. There needs to be a particular bowl in mind when cutting out and fitting the elastic.

Peg bag

OK. This isn’t completely made from scraps, but it was the item that prompted the current ‘scrap busting’ phase. The William Morris fabric is a fat quarter, bought at National Trust Wightwick Manor. But i had the lining and backing fabric in stock. The design is ‘stolen’ from a peg bag that another friend was recently given. Albeit, i had to work out how to make it to fit the child’s coat hanger that i already had. The front needs to be lined. The back doesn’t have to be lined (my prototype wasn’t), but as this one will be swinging from a line with a hand regularly dipping in and out of the opening, i thought that a robust finish was required.

So the fat quarter and scraps stretched to a peg bag, matching bowl covers in a range of sizes and a lavender bag, and surprise, surprise, there is some fabric left!