One of the things that rekindled my artistic passion several months ago was my strong desire to give new life to beautiful-yet-no-longer-wanted pieces of designer home-decor and upholstery fabrics. I’ve been an ardent recycler for many years, always making sure to sort all our household recyclables into the right bins. I also have a small compost pail on my kitchen counter, which I religiously empty into two large compost bins in the yard. Whenever I find a stray yogurt tub or banana peel in the garbage, I make sure to fish them out and put them where they belong. This little obsession served me well as a quilter, for in quilting even the smallest piece of cotton fabric can often be used.
These days I try to make useful items out of rescued fabrics, but after cutting bags or notebook covers or anything else I always find myself left with leftover scraps. From the very beginning I’ve been using the biggest pieces to make inside pockets for new bags:
Or outside pockets for totes:
But many of the pieces are too small for that. I haven’t had the heart to throw these away, and so I’ve been collecting them and storing them in a box.
A few weeks ago I went over this trove and sorted my scraps by approximate size.
I decided to challenge myself to find use even for smaller pieces, and to make that a habit going forward. I started ANY Texture, after all, out of a strong desire to reduce waste and save beautiful, unique things from going to the landfill. So now, instead of cutting fresh straps to make my notebook loops, for example, I use leftover straps of lining.
This piece, for example, left over after cutting lining for one of my still-under construction spring collection, would have been tossed away earlier:
Instead, I ironed it and sewed it:
And then made a beautiful loop out of it, for which I found the perfect notebook cover:
It works great!
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