save teeny tiny scraps of fabric?
I finally bought a plastic container in which to store them.
But at some point I need to say enough is enough. There might be a point where they really are too small to save…
Posted in Uncategorized.
– August 31, 2009
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I do save tiny little scraps. Some times they’ll be just the right size for an applique detail. I also use them will Polyfil as stuffing. =]
I save the scraps because they are the perfect size for making fabric covered buttons or appliques. I have a container, which I’m sad to say is overflowing.
In fact, all of my fabric storage is overflowing and yet I keep buying. Its an addiction I tell you!
never to small to keep
I save slevages to even though I don’t use them occasionally I find someone who does.
I have a hard time throwing my scraps away… but mine aren’t nearly as pretty as yours.
what do you do with them?
awwwww…….have a giveaway!!
I have multiple boxes of scraps. I’ve even bought scraps on Ebay. They’re tiny treasures.
I only save scraps that are wider than 1 inch. Any smaller… no way man!
Like Cristin, if they are smaller than an inch they get pitched, otherwise I keep them. After a while I sort them by colour too. And I have just the project in mind for some of them.
I take the tiny scraps to my daughter’s preschool where they love to make collages.
I do save some and let my daughter glue them onto paper. makes really pretty pictures…
I saved them (1″ or larger.) I used quite a few of them on my string quilt. Every now and then I’d sew four or five of them together to make a multi coloured strip. As if 3,000 strings wasn’t enough sewing already…
I save them if they can hold a seam allowance and still show fabric. I finished one scrap quilt with many of these tiny scraps and have another in the works.
I signed up for A Year of Schnibbles at aquiltinglife.blogspot.com so that I can use up more of my scraps. Schnibbles use up tiny scraps! Maybe you’ll empty that bin with us?
I love my scraps! I really save almost anything. I’m sure I save way too much, but I really enjoy using them.
I save them and call them “crumbs”. I made a quilt out of my red ones a couple of months ago so now I feel completely validated!
Go you!
I used to save every little scrap. But after quilting for all these years, I kinda got over that. I will save strips if they are over 1 1/2 inches wide, but then I have to decide, how LONG do the strips have to be before I save them? It’s a constant dilemma. Any my husband does fabulous fused glass items, and we have bins of GLASS scraps and wonder what to do with those too.
I save them! If for no other reason than they’re too pretty to throw away : )
Oh, I can relate! I’m a saver of bits, as well! I generally try to use them in crumb blocks for doll quilts, but I have stuffed them into clear glass ornaments, along with thread bits and gave them as holiday ornaments to me sew sisters! So many ways to enjoy them!
I do it and it drives my husband nuts… I keep them in a huge jar and in bags, and he always asks me whatever will I need them for lol I just can’t throw them out no matter how teenie… perhaps I need a box too.
Oh yes I have a metal bucket full of my tiny ones. I throw things away that aren’t wide enough to sew a line on though. : )
I do too! I
yeeeessssss! and I still don’t have the heart to throw them away even when I am trying to declutter – especially when they are Heather Ross or similar cool prints!
yes I save the little tinies too. but only when they’re my favorites. I think I throw them if they’re under an inch wide and smaller than a few inches. but it seems to me that you’re good at using your scraps, so it’s good right?
Yes. I keep mine in a nappy box and occasionally dip into it. I’ve recently made a couple of quilts using scraps of brights – but I do tend to use smaller pieces in my piecing than you usually do anyway.
No, I don’t! Not unless it is the last of a favorite fabric.
I don’t have enough storage space for that kind of craziness!
Rossie
its ok to save fabric even when they might be too small to use. what you could do is have a solid piece of fabric and use the scraps on it. though it wont have a pattern. its good that you found a box so that you dont have random pieces lying around
Craziness? I don’t think so. Imagine a quilt of 1 inch squares. Beautiful and it’s almost like a free quilt. I call mine trash quilt. because rossie is right it is a little crazy.
Throw them in a gift bag instead of tissue paper. Fun festive and not a waste. I even use the small rotary scraps this way.
yes. i have big issues throwing almost anything out.
I save everything, even tiny triangles. I’m going to put as much of it into a scrap quilt as possible and then donate the rest to a lady who uses scraps to stuff dog beds for shelter dogs. Makes me feel less crazy for saving it all!!
Far, far too many. And then I never use them. I keep thinking I might stuff something with them, but no.
I do keep 2×3″ scraps to use for leaders and enders, which I go through by the ton, it seems.
I had been throwing scraps away but then I started seeing what some quilters were making out of “trash.” Now I am stashing them in a bin and looking forward to making something with all the random pieces.
I save small pieces of fabric and lengths of DMC floss. You never know when you might need to take a few stitches or create a small patch.
You just NEVER know when you may need a tennie tiny bit of fabric.
I save mine also, but not for me to use. I send them off to school for the preppies to do collage. The kids love to use them.
I also save all my little trimmed slivers, yes I do! When the dolls need a new mattress or pillow I can have on made in no time flat. Nothing like a designer mattress and pillow for all the Barbies.
I have a container chock full of tiny scraps!! I think I’ll have to make a scrap quilt…
I also have a lot them in a plastic bag… and finally found what to do with it!!!
))
A little girl asked me lately for “fabric”… she is now playing with all my scraps: she’s HAPPY & I’m HAPPY
Yes , can’t throw even the tiniest scrap away either. I have a basket full of scraps and not a small basket I’m afraid to say.
I use mine, along with cut off threads and batting etc to stuff toys. Then I know I didn’t waste them and someone is still loving them.
I save anything more than 1″ wide and 1″ long. The tiny pieces are great as the last piece on the corner of a string or spiderweb block and if i have 2 or 3 of the same fabric i sew then together and use them as a strip. I do think i need my head testing, but i just can’t help myself!!
I put the tiny ones in an old kleenex box and use them for fabric postcards–just fuse it all down and quilt!
I do save itty bitty scraps, especially if I really like the fabric!
What I love about quilting is that you use up even the tiniest piece of fabric (and sometimes thread but very rarely). I dumped mine together with the larger pieces but I first need to work on my sewing space with a window.
Yes, I do this too! And I bought a plastic bin to put them in, but now I don’t know what to do with them. I saw a cool project where someone covered a moleskin notebook with these scraps, giving it a mosaic look.
Yep…I save them too. Every so often I think “that’s it…they are going!!” and then I start to look at them and think…well actually there is still enough fabric to sew together and make something pretty…and back into the cupboard they go
)
i keep them too. i call them snippets. and i HAVE made things out of them, so that’s why i keep saving them. it’s madness…but again, isn’t not all that bad being crazy, is it??? ;0)
lol…I totally do this too. I’m glad there are so many of us! I can usually find a use for them…if they’re too small to sew with, make fabric covered buttons with, or generally do anything else visual with, I use them as extra stuffing in dolls or pin cushions. AS long as they go in the middle they don’t make things too lumpy.
Oh yes! I do this too! If you truly cannot use them, give them away. Think of groups who do crafts….like nursing homes, schools (know any teachers?), Brownies and Girl Scouts and on and on.
I’m thinkin of putting mine in a candy jar on a shelf in my studio! I can’t bear to throw them all out!
I had a friend who, when they were moving his grandmother from the farm to the city, found a shoebox labeled “Bits of string too small to save.”
There is a video on http://www.threadbanger.com..(there videos play better off of You tube than their own site, anyway) that shows a woman who makes cuffs and fabric pieces she incorperates into other sewing by taking tiny tiny scraps and the cut thread ends from sewing..She fuses them together with a wash out bond material and then free form stitches over them to create one piece….She liteally uses EVERY scrap she has from sewing with this technique….And it looks artsy creative and lovely….Have not tried it myself YET.
Those scraps are beautiful! I’d have a hard time throwing them away as well. Here’s an idea from my friend Carrie. She uses her scraps for really fun fabric paper doll kits: http://thismamamakesstuff.blogspot.com/2009/08/makine-stuff-fabric-paper-doll-kit.html
never.
never to small to throw away.
never.
I save down to 3/4 inch square pieces for making mini quilts