Patchwork scraps

What to do with all those little scraps of fabric that you have left from sewing projects? Well …. after you have made a tree of life, butterfly picture, light and blind pulls you can make yourself some patchwork pieces to save for a project that will inevitably show itself some time soon 🙂

Its far easier to stash some square patchwork pieces neatly together than it is to have bag loads of the scraps.

Find a length of fabric, any length will do and any width will do ( as long as its wide enough to sew another piece to. Then take a selection of itsy bitsy pieces and some a little larger and pin them along one side on the strip. You want them close together but you don’t have to have them touching. Sew these in place right sides together then press open.

Cut between each piece using scissors or a rotary cutter. So now your itsy bitsy pieces have just doubled in size and are now easier to work with 🙂

Do the same again, find a long strip of fabric and pin all the pieces you have just cut, straight edges and right sides together and sew. Then press the seams open and do exactly the same as before cutting between each piece.

You can keep doing this as much as you like and let the piece keep growing or when you have a reasonable patch sized piece you can now go ahead and trim.

Placing your ruler to get a nice straight line on four sides, cut all the uneven edges off.  Now you have some scraps to start your collection again 🙂

You can just build up your collection of patchwork pieces as and when you have some spare time and then they are there ready for you when you need them. You can also just keep adding to the original piece and watch it grow. You will be amazed how quickly a patchwork masterpiece will come together just from some scrappy bits that most people chuck away!