Friday 23 February 2018

What Are Your Creative Ideas? Sewing, Fabrics & Reducing Waste

A couple weeks ago I did a post about getting crafty with fabric and I want to develop that a bit because I've been thinking a lot about all the different things you can do with left over scraps of fabric...

I've always hated waste, not from an environmental perspective, that connection came much later, but all my life I have loved efficiency...makes me sound like a robot and I'm really not, but I've always gotten excited about the idea of making just the right amount of food so that none is left over and none goes to waste. Or taking the most efficient and direct route in the car... I can't explain why it thrills me so much, just weird connections in the ole brain box I guess...

Anyway, because I design fabrics and lots of my customers buy my fabric to make things out of, there is definitely going to be little bits left over...so what to do with them?

I've been compiling a list of all sorts of easy things to make with left over bits of fabric... Like this for example...It's a wheat pillow. My whole family uses these every single night to warm our toes in bed and it doesn't need much fabric to make, particularly as they can be any shape you like...


I've used the motif from my Beautiful Bugs fabric because I thought it would be cute, but the shape can be long and slim or heart shaped, whatever... just make sure that  when you sew the 2 faces together, you leave a hole about 5 cm wide, to put the wheat in. Turn it in the right way and use a funnel to get the wheat into the hole. Don't put too much in, it should feel kind of sloppy. Then either by hand or top stitch by machine, sew up the gap. You're good to go and no chilly toes!

Tip: keep the main stitch short and zig zag the edges so that the little bits of wheat won't make their way out of gaps between stitches.

So what cool things should I make next from my scraps of fabric? I'm thinking about doing a sleeping eye mask and a lavender bag for my pants drawer...what else? If you've got any cool ideas of what to do with scraps of fabric then comment below or email me on rachel@vanasch.se

I'm also very happy to say that I just got delivery of my first lot of organic fabrics and I'm so pleased with how they are looking! It was important for me to start  producing my fabrics organically, once I found out that overuse of pesticides was killing the bees and bees are super important for the environment, I didn't want to contribute towards bee death.

 You can buy our Victorian Gothic fabric here

You can buy our Leopard Fabric here

So have a think about cool things to make with scraps of fabric, and it doesn't have to be sewing... can be gluing too or embedding in resin... I don't know... what is even possible????

Well you crafty lot, I'm off to walk the dog in this beautiful day so I hope you have wonderful weekend and I look forward to hearing your ideas... nothing is too silly or too boring... bring it on!!

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