Remnants and scraps: When Are They Too Small to Use?

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Reuse of materials is a constant theme for me, and at the moment, curtain fabric remnants and scraps are my preoccupation. I’ve been busy with the sewing machine lately making curtains for a bay window at the front of the house, in time for the onset of winter. Having so many scraps of curtain and upholstery fabric to hand, I switched my creative brain on to see if I can make use of these. In the process I’ve turned out a set of curtains that are nod to curtains in the next room, and they’re cheaper than if I’d made them entirely from new fabric.

I’ve been grappling with metres of fabric, interlining and lining, crawling around on my hands and knees with pins and tape measure. I’m smoothing out fabric on the largest area of floor I can find, then pinning and hauling the results to the sewing machine.

Yes, hauling. It’s a workout for the arms. Who needs to go to a gym?

It certainly didn’t seem like a warm weather project, which is why it has taken some time to get round to it. But, my husband, Andy, and I can definitely feel the insulating benefits. The woodburner has been roaring away this week, the curtains keeping the heat in the living room in.

Just at the point when I wondered whether the amount of work involved made this to big a project to take on at the moment, my husband informed me that he’s read that thick curtains can reduce heat loss by 60% for single-glazed windows. I’m glad he’s imparted those words of wisdom.

Remnants of Remnants

Window insulation aside, to make these curtains, I’ve found a useful home for the remnants and scraps from another pair of patchwork curtains made a few months ago.

I’ve used them as a border to a large area of plain oatmeal colour fabric, so they are remnants of remnants, so to speak. The original patchwork curtains were made from shop-bought curtain fabric remnants. Some of these also ended up in a patchwork quilt which is still part-finished.

How to Transform Ugly Fabrics Using Remnants and Scraps

Thrown into the new mix are pieces taken from an ugly fabric – a curtain left behind at the house when I first moved in. I didn’t like it, so it ended up in the loft. Now, I’ve dragged it into the daylight because I realised that cutting it into smaller strips neutralised its ugliness. Mix an ugly fabric with others and its potential emerges.

Some remnants and scraps from this made it in to the border. But, I also cut some of the fabric into bias strips and covered cord to make piping.

Remnants and Scraps: from Large to Small

So from large remnants….

to remnants in strips which made the curtain border…..

and scraps that I thought were unfeasibly small, and I was never going to use.

How far along this road can I go? Perhaps the waste from the latest project (thinner strips) would make a good log cabin patchwork quilt? Once started on this road it gets hard to throw anything away. Every scrap becomes loaded with possibility.

From Wool Scraps to Trash Batts

Even tiny scraps of wool left over from sewing in ends have evaded the bin. I love tweedy wool, and it occurred to me that shredded down, I could use these as fodder for trash batts.

Batts are the result of carding wool or other fibres. Trash batts incorporate waste material along with new fibre. So, I could mix these scraps with a plain coloured wool fibre to make my own version of a tweedy yarn. I’ve used another trash batt mix too – carding waste mixed with new wool fibres.

Is Using Scraps a Dying Trend?

Most people probably feel that using scraps at the scrappiest end of the spectrum  is overly laborious and unnecessary. But, we used to do this out of necessity. Yet, homespun crafters produced beautiful things. Take patchwork quilt making that genuinely used old clothes and fabric remnants. I find this type of patchworking the most heartwarming.

Gee’s Bend Quilters: Scrap Users Par Excellance

Many patchworkers will know of Gee’s Bend quilts.  Women of Gee’s Bend in Alabama, USA made these quilts. They lived in a remote community mostly descended from former African American slaves who for generations worked on a plantation owned by the Pettway family. The Gee family owned the land before the Pettway family, hence the name Gee’s Bend.

Since the early 20th century, women of this community have produced strikingly beautiful quilts, now famous worldwide. They made these by hand from whatever scraps they had to hand.

Often wonky, and made of up fabrics of all different textures, the patterns of different scales, they are put together using traditional patchwork structure, such as log cabin, or Housetop, but with individual flare.

These are works of art born out of lives of poverty and isolation. I first came across Gee’s Bend quilts in A world of Quilts: Designing and Making Contemporary Quilts Inspired by Traditional Patterns by Cassandra Ellis. First the quilts caught my eye, then the name Gee’s Bend as, strangely, I have a Gee lineage in my own family though I know of no connections.

Boro Mending: Patches on Patches

Boro mending, where fabrics are patched one on top of another over years of use and repeated mending, is associated with Japanese peasants. The word boro derives from the Japanese boroboro meaning tattered and repaired. They patched and re-patched because textiles were hard to come by, and much fabric was reserved for the elites in a relatively closed society.

Paper and Card Scraps

I also have a habit of keeping scraps of packaging paper and card, and cutting pieces out of Christmas and Birthday cards. I recycle them into gift tags and greetings cards. They’re all stuffed into a large reused gift bag. If I’m starting to sound like a hoarder, I’m reassured to see that there are many more out there, to be found on social media.

Whenever people are released from scarcity, resourcefulness tends to fall by the wayside. Is this a bad thing, or does holding on to this resourcefulness result in depriving yourself of good things and hoarding?

Resourceful hoarders

Are resourceful people hoarders? I ask because I know I find it hard to throw many scraps away. Don’t get me wrong though; I still feel I’m not that much of a hoarder. After all I can clear out, edit and de-clutter with the rest of you. It’s just that where textiles and arts and craft materials are concerned, I probably need counselling. Will I end up in re-hab?