Category Archives: scraps

Making a few changes.

My cup cozy designs came from part having funny things to say and part wanting to help people keep their drink a bit insulated and their hands a bit safe while sparing the environment extra cups or cardboard sleeves.

I try to be conscious of my consumption of items and how much I use up my craft supplies. I repurpose things and use up all my scraps (down to 1 inch magnets and then teeny tiny scraps for hairclips). I take donated scraps from people, thrift things to reuse, when I screen print and make mistakes I use those pieces as interfacing and lining for other projects. I try.

Recently I’ve tried to up my game in our household – reusable produce bags, reusable make up removal wipes, hand made face cloths and wipes. I keep them in a travel bag in the bathroom then once they are used put then in a mesh bag to breathe then just wash and dry in the mesh bag.

This ones were made with our favourite colour in my house, which we call Swoon. My son wanted some slightly larger ones for his face. I just used up fun prints I had on hand and made a bunch for our use.

As I posted about them I had some request and so I went ahead and made some for friends. It saves on having to buy one time use make up puffs and doesn’t make any solid waste.

Looking forward to making more and adding them to my table at craft shows and my Etsy shop.

I learned a thing!

I took a class recently at The Workroom . It’s the Herringbone Patchwork class taught by Johanna Masko who you can stalk on Instagram here. It involved ‘partial seams’ which are really neat but can hurt your head if you get thinking about them, which you have to do. It takes a seriously underestimated amount of brain power to pull this design off.

I’ve only made a quilt here and there and on my own, or as I did in university with the help of a library book so this was a new to me experience. The pattern is quite mind bending! Literally.

I quickly realised, while chatting with people in the class only to look down and see I had made mistakes, that this isn’t a ‘toss on some Netflix and get your sew on’ kind of project. We needed buddies to check our work. Even then mistakes were found. Once I got home and was buddyless and working on my own there was a lot of ‘reverse sewing’ to say the least.

But the results are lovely and very different. I’m grateful for having learned such a neat technique. Now to turn it into a pillow as Johanna intended!

Setting a goal

Every year in November I participate in Make It Indie in Cobourg. It’s a fantastic show, great vendors, huge turn out, wonderful crowd, I absolutely love it. I’ve decided this year I’m going to pick up this display shelf I saw at Michael’s and fill it with oodles of my scrappy wallets! It’s no secret that I love Michelle Patterns and I especially love making my scrappy wallets from one of her now retired patterns.

I went ahead and ordered a pile of zippers for the occasion. I’ve been getting them for a few years now from Zipit Zippers on Etsy. It’s the best value and quality I’ve found. Being in Canada it’s tricky to find selection and reasonable shipping rates (why is it all so hard for us!?). They’re YKK and she has a great variety of colours.

She did it again, well I did really.

We all know I love Michelle Patterns.  She chooses great fabrics and makes really neat things.  She has played a big part in how I learned to sew.  She sent me a magnet with one of the scrap pack orders I got ages ago which inspired me to begin making magnets with my scraps as well.

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The other day she posted on her Instagram about finding a charm pack and I was smitten with it. Sooo off I went to buy it from her, which is what happens every time she posts she has a new scrap pack in her shop. I’m a bit of a sucker for small pieces of fabric.

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Another TinkerTote, this one’s for me.

I can’t tell you how much I loved this class my Tara Rebman- Quilt-As-You-Go: Patchwork Bags. I have made sooo many. They never fail to get commented on. And they play on my love of making use of scraps!

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I love Echnio fabrics and I had a vision of making my self a bag using scraps of their prints.  So off I went to Etsy to find a scrap bundle.  I found Mountain of the Dragon and after some chats about ‘Will you pretty please ship to Canada?’ we sorted out a way to get me some pretties.  Basically I said ‘I’m willing to spend $X, send what you can for that amount’.  It’s so hard lately with the terrible exchange rate to get things shipped from the US . . .

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These scraps were perfect! So I set to sewing up my own tote, finally.

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I used some thrifted purple denim at the bottom instead of the usual blue and chose to make use of my pre-made bias tape I purchased from my favourite pattern making gal Michelle Patterns.  Sadly I was missing about 4-5 inches of tape to finish it off! Of course I hadn’t measured twice before I started so I had all the tape sewn on the bag and then was missing this one piece.  Luckily thanks to a sad face shout out on Instagram Michelle let me know what the fabric was.

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Did, yet another, quick Etsy search and found this shop to order exactly what I needed, and of course a few things more . . . because FABRIC!

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Skinny pincushion

So made myself a scrappy quick little project the other day. I absolutely love things that use up scraps, the small the better. I remember the first time I made something with a ton of prints on it, one of my scrappy wallets, I was hesitant at first but once you just let go and put things together it all looks great once it’s finished.

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It’s from a free pattern by Green Bee Designs, they have a free patterns section and it’s in there.

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I added more sections to mine because I wanted it even more scrappy.  I rarely do things as dictated.

Tinkertote madness!

I swear I am in complete and utter love of this technique and making more of these beautiful creations of Tara Rebman’s Quilt-As-You-Go: Patchwork Bags

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I love using up my scraps, making them work together or just throwing whatever with whatever and seeing how it goes.

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That’s how I’ve pieced the scrappy wallets I make and I love how they turn out with so many bright colours and patterns.

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They look absolutely fantastic if you go the extra mile and make your own bias tape. It is time consuming and a bit finicky but the results are great.

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Hand stitching the second side of the tape on is the best way to go. Keeps it really nice and tidy. But beware! Thimble recommended.

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Hexie addiction

Yeah I love these things.

Scraps and fun fabrics. Some of my favourite things.

Also, see storing them in this fun container I found while thrifting.

Quilting as you go spill over.

I’m completely and utterly enjoying my Craftsy Patchwork Quilt as You Go class, it’s ridiculously fun and informative.

I’m still working on my bag but I was looking through the mountain of scraps that was laid out in my workspace and I glimpsed this girl and was insipired to use the techniques to whip up a scrappy cup cozy.

I even got brave and tried some free motion quilting outlining on the girl and unicorn. I wasn’t very precise wiht it, just wanted to sort of go around the outline and big features. It’s such a cool effect. It didn’t take long to quilt some straight lines and free motion parts but boy does it make a big difference on the cozy. Sort of turns it into a little one of a kind work of art!


I think I may have found a new favourite quick and scrap busting project!

Wheee fabric surprise!

I got some beautiful Marimekko fabric cuttings from my elementary school friend Annhy! Thanks to the wonders of Facebook and now other such social media we can be in touch with all sorts of people we wouldn’t konw a thing about otherwise! So while we went to school from grades 3-7 together in Toronto she now lives in sunny Miami. Strangely she’s got 2 adorable little boys just like me.

A while back she wrote asking if I’d like some odds and ends of Marimekko fabric she had lying around. Free fabric? I’m in! I pulled them right out of the package and photographed them. I suppose in hindsight I could have ironed it all. Oh well.

This particular piece is HUGE. Not sure what I’ll do with any of it yet but I’m sure something will pop into my head.