Scraps and spills - a treasure or a time thief? - Part 1

I have a love-hate relationship with scraps and I've learned that I'm not the only one. Having larger scraps is not my problem, I can sew both children's clothes and beanies from them without feeling like I need to think really hard. My problem is that I save most of the waste and I always get stressed out when my IKEA drawers are full so that I "need" to use them. The textile industry is an incredibly resource-intensive industry where a lot of water is used for production. Then I also want to use even the smallest pieces to avoid throwing them away unnecessarily when I actually CAN use them and create something useful from them.

As I mentioned before, I usually divide my waste and scraps into three piles. I cut off the very smallest and it actually becomes garbage. Then I cut off the slightly larger pieces that are still too small to sew anything meaningful from, I usually put them in a separate bag that when full is donated to a preschool; either my children's, my mother's or my friend's. The larger pieces that are at least 8cm in any direction, usually end up in a waste box. It is rare that I get over half a meter of fabric, but most of the time it is mostly small pieces.

I understand that I'm not the only one who feels this love-hate relationship and you've also asked for an inspiration post about stew bits. You had so many ideas that it wouldn't fit in a single post, so I thought I'd do a series about this.

Rosettes

Making rosette tassels is one of the few things that requires very little fabric to create something that doesn't look compromised. It's also something that suits all ages and can look very different depending on the fabric choice.

Flowers

Even simple flowers are perfect to sew from the smallest scraps. You can also experiment with this endlessly. Depending on the choice of beads, or the choice of fabric or number of leaves, the appearance can be very different. These can then be used as decoration on garments such as sweaters, dresses or why not hair bands?

Schruncies

Even simple flowers are perfect to sew from the smallest scraps. You can also experiment with this endlessly. Depending on the choice of beads, or the choice of fabric or number of leaves, the appearance can be very different. These can then be used as decoration on garments such as sweaters, dresses or why not hair bands?

Pencil case

Even a pencil case is something that requires quite a bit of material, although it may be hard to believe, and it is therefore possible to get a lot of nice things out of almost nothing. I put this pencil case together with an inherited zipper from my grandmother's collection and leftover pieces from the fabric drawer. But even here you can play around and why not decorate with lace, or join with solid-colored fabrics to make the pieces enough.

Applications

Applique sewing is something that I find can be difficult, but this particular sweater is one of my sons' absolute favorite sweaters. Print out a picture of, for example, your child's first letter in a font you like and cut it out of the stowage box and sew it onto the garment that the appliqué will be on.

Underwear

Underwear is also perfect for sewing from scraps, both larger and smaller. I sewed these underwear when the children had just finished wearing diapers, so it was really easy to get a whole pair of underwear out of the small pieces that were in the storage box. However, with larger sizes you may need to be more creative and think outside the box. Maybe choose to splice certain parts or why not choose a different fabric for the center section in the front?

Color blocking - big and small

Another way to deal with scraps and waste pieces is to use the "color blocking" technique. What it really means is nothing more than that certain parts are joined with a fabric in a different color. In this case, I chose to join with black pieces that I had also sewn with a serger foot to get a more fun texture. Exactly how you choose to block is up to you, but there the only limits are your imagination.

Hope this gives you inspiration to use your leftover pieces.