I never throw away any fabric scraps, no matter how small. I just can’t bring myself to do it. To me, every little bit still has potential. They could be a coaster, or a dollhouse blanket, or a Christmas ornament, or a bunch of them could be sewn together and make a potholder or a table runner. If I was really ambitious, I could cut them all into 1” squares and make a Postage Stamp quilt. That could use up over 9,000 one-inch squares and would make a real dent in my scrap pile. I’ve even known some people to take the tiniest bits (one quarter inch in size or less!) then iron them to a fusible backing to make autumn leaves or snow.
Another fun quilt that can use up scraps is an “I Spy” quilt which can be entertaining for the kiddos and makes a very charming gift for a child. Simply fussy cut visual elements of interest like animals or other objects like cars or dinosaurs or spaceships. Stitch them together any way you like. You can have a good time with the little ones finding all the cool things hidden in the quilt.
If you can’t think of a use for your scraps or you simply have an overwhelming number of them and are looking to clean house, you could:
- Bag them up and sell them on ETSY or eBay. I know this sounds ridiculous… why would any buy something you are trying to get rid of? Surely, they must have plenty of their own scraps at home! Strange as it sounds, I urge you to give it a go. People will buy bags of scraps online.
- Trade with other quilters such as at a guild or sewing group or even online. That doesn’t really reduce the total number of scraps you have but at least you will have different scraps to inspire you.
- Rehome them on Facebook Marketplace. Simply bag them up, put up a listing, and leave them at the end of your driveway. Trust me, quilters will come.
- Use them as stuffing for stuffed animals or other objects d’ art. Frankly I’d have a very hard time using perfectly good scraps for stuffing because you would not be able to see them anymore, but if the pieces were very small and a lot of them had been collected over time, I might be able to do this.
Whatever you choose to do with your scraps, keep on quilting and making new scraps!