Scrap Fabrics

Written by Linn of The Home Project

Hi guys! I’m so happy to be the guest writer here at DIY Inspired! Today I wanted to talk a little bit about the concept of using up scrap fabrics.

Do you have a scrap pile full of fabrics that seem too small to really use for anything practical? Well, if you do, then that’s an excellent opportunity to get creative and attempt a quilt design. There is something so neat about sewing fabrics together and creating something unique, something that is distinctive to you!

I suggest you make a quilted trivet or an oven mitt, which is a fun and manageable project that won’t take you two weeks to finish. Unlike a large-scale quilt, you don’t need a lot of time on your hands. And if you have never quilted before, then this would be an excellent opportunity to try it out. First of all, decide what kind of design you would like. For this quilted trivet, I was going for a somewhat more haphazard look and not perfect squares. This can be fun to do, and definitely presents you with more of a design challenge.

However, there is nothing wrong with perfect squares either! And here comes the great part: you can make them as large or as small as you want. If you literally have tiny scraps of fabric to use up, then make a trivet with tiny squares. Sure, it will take a little longer, but I bet the result would be absolutely fantastic!

Or you can go the route that I went with this oven mitt. Here I cut stripes of varying lengths of fabric and sewed them together for a quilted striped design. That works too, and I rather like the way this one looks.

When making oven holders and mitts I strongly recommend you double or triple up on the heat-resistant batting, because it’s no fun to get burned! I also recommend that you sew through your design (the definition of quilting) to get all layers connected (if you’re making a mitt, sew through each side of the mitt before connecting them together.) That way the layers won’t come apart even if you wash the mitt or trivet later on.