How to Upcycle Fabric Scraps

When I finish a big sewing or quilting project I am often left with a ton of scrap fabric and trimmings. I hate to see them going to a landfill where it would take an enormous amount of time to biodegrade. I was talking to my roommate about it and she and I came up with some cool ideas. I later found during a google search that a lot of other people had the same ideas and there’s a lot of really cute stuff to be made with materials that you would have just thrown away!

Use as stuffing!

Next time you find yourself needing to stuff a pillow or a quilt, use some of your fabric trims and scraps to do so. If you have a chunky fabric cut it into smaller parts and then shred with scissors as done below: 

 By doing this the fabric scraps become even smaller and are more comfortable as stuffing. However; be cautious and don’t cut too small or else the final product won’t be as fluffy. 

Use trimmings as decorations

-Put material in glass jars to show off color and decorate. 

-Use the leftover material for kids crafts and other textile crafts. 

-Wrap trimmings around beads, bookmarks, picture frames etc. 

Keep and organize by color and size to use for quilting details

This is a great way to stay motivated to do projects in the future because you will slowly build up different colors and textures that might inspire you to make a certain objects, shapes or even entire projects.