These were the paper scraps I was left with:
Of course I can just heap the paper into the recycle bin, but it got me thinking. This week this pile will be scraps of muslin fabric and next week, fashion fabric. What can I do with the scraps?
I honestly have no interest in the little projects I could make with the scraps and no place to store the scraps if I have a change of heart. So I wanted to ask you, readers, can I recycle fabric and, if so, how? Are there centers that accept donated fabric scraps, for example?
Where this is coming from: The more I read about the 1940s, the less I can ignore that each item has a life before it enters our hands and after it leaves them. In the 1940s mindset, there was a World War waging, with fuel and fabric in short supply. It was the government's—and individual's—duty to ensure survival, both on the battlefield and on the homefront. And that largely meant conserving resources.
Though I have always been interested in the usefulness of things (hence, not wanting a lot of excess), I'll be the first to admit that the environment is not high on the list of things I've been passionate about. In many ways, I've been willfully ignorant, figuring I do my part. I live in a part of the world where being green is just as easy as not, and so I recycle my paper, glass and plastic, I compost my food scraps and I even make an effort to shop at local stores who sell local goods.
But there's a glimmer of consciousness a-brewing. Do these fabric scraps—if I have no other use for them—really belong in the trash?
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What do I do? I feel guilty about throwing them away so I carefully bundle them up. After about 2 years of moving them around, I throw them out. Once I stuffed a floor pillow with batting mixed with fabric scraps. I admit it was lumpy. Good luck with disposal !
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about disposal but for pieces that are slightly larger I re-use them for facings and the insides of pockets. If they're cotton and wont be able to be seen through the fashion fabric I also use them as interfacings because I hate making something with natural fibres and using horrible synthetic interfacing on it. I'm also keeping a bag of smaller scraps because I saw this really cool chair in a high end fabric store that was decoupaged in scraps of pretty floral fabrics and then covered in some sort of shellac type thing. When I have enough scraps I want to do that to my sewing chair.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I can think of about the old way of doing things is that we used to stuff toys with scraps and hope that the coloured ones didn't show through. Of course there was patchwork but maybe they even layered scraps for use within padded items. Cherrie
ReplyDeleteI take a lot of my scraps along to kindergarten and school, as they do all sorts of arty crafty things with them!
ReplyDeleteThere is a textile collection bank just down the road from my house so I sometimes bag up scraps and put them in. My local charity shhop can also be paid for textile waste and they will accept clean rags so I prefer to give them my scraps. I have limited storage space but do keep them sometimes...they are good for bag linings, dolls' clothes. My last suggestion is a bit desperate but we use squares of fabric as cleaning cloths.
ReplyDeleteMy mum grew up in the 40s and 50s and only had homemade dolls (made by her mother) made from scraps for most of her childhood.
I am not sure
great question and i have no idea. i've been bagging them up (and throwing out the really little ones), but i don't have a lot of fabric storage much less scrap storage. i do keep the ones big enough to use as facings/linings/pockets though...
ReplyDeleteI'm in the UK and here I take them to a textile recycling bank (these are bins on the side of the road) - they take everything from clothing to scraps and then send them for sorting; the uses they are put to can range from reselling/donating to charity (for complete clothes), use as cleaning cloths in industry, or shredding for use as fillings. There may be something local to you which runs along the same lines?
ReplyDeleteI take them to the textile bank, or I bring the interesting ones to my daughters play school for them to stick and glue or whatever.
ReplyDeleteI´ve been meaning to ask this question too, Ali!
ReplyDeleteThese textile recycling banks the Brits are talking about sounds fantastic - we don´t have anything like that for scraps here where I live.
But I´ve heard about (other places on the Internets) that cat and dog shelters always are in need of scraps (I would guess only from natural fibers?), but as for me, I get rid of everything that is smaller than a certain size, and feel guilty for doing it. I have a loom, so I really should start making rugs with my scraps. Good luck with yours!
Less than half a metre/yard, chuck it. If it has a selvedge edge, ten minutes with a ruler, a cutting mat and a rotary cutter, and you have a load of pretty bias strips for later use as binding, and a set of selvedge strips to be used as seam stays (on shoulder seams etc). Then chuck the rest (or do what the others suggest above. But it's quicker to cut bias strips and selvedge stays than to go looking for them and buy them. And they store in a tiny space. I think that's what would have been done with them in the past too.
ReplyDeleteI take them to school and we use them in various art projects. Know any art teachers? I'm sure a teacher would take them.
ReplyDeletei save cotton and linen scraps for quilting and bigger pieces for facings/pockets/etc
ReplyDeletebut...space does eventually become an issue so i've been forcing myself not to save every last little bit. sometimes it's ok to throw a little away.
I don't have a lot of scraps yet, but for now I'm trying to keep the larger pieces for pockets/facings, the smaller pieces may become a patchwork bag if I really like the fabric. Also, Colette Patterns has a tutorial on making bias tape from a 10x10" fabric scrap...
ReplyDeleteI stuff (and re-stuff) the dog's pillows with my scraps. Not glamorous, but at least I don't feel guilty about throwing them away.
ReplyDeleteWhat a timely post! I've been hoarding my larger scraps for the past couple of years and just got done with a duvet cover:
ReplyDeletehttp://darcidoodle-do.blogspot.com/2011/02/blocks-of-sunshine-summer-duvet.html
The teeny weeny scraps all go in the garbage. If I've mispurchased a fabric and really will never use it, I don't them to Scrap: http://scrapaction.org/
s/b "I donate them to Scrap."
ReplyDeleteI cut and tear them into strips, sometimes I use them to curl my hair, sometimes as waxing strips when I wax my eyebrows, sometime I use them to stuff pillows, stuffed animals, etc.
ReplyDeleteAt Whipstitch in Atlanta, they have a bin for scraps when you are in sewing class, that get donated to stuff dog beds.
I have a civics textbook from New York City that was published in 1905 that lists the things a thoughtful person will sort and put into the appropriate waste barrels. The list includes ash, wood scraps, several kinds of metal scraps, paper waste, and rags, which would be pulped for paper. High-quality paper still contains some rag, but I don't know if it's easier just to use new cotton instead of bleaching out old cotton.
ReplyDeleteI did just cut a waistband facing out of some scraps, which made me proud of myself. I think the waistband pattern piece is going to become my new rubric for how big a scrap has to be before I keep it - if it's at least that big, it can be useful, but if not, out it goes. I live in hope that I will find a kindergarten teacher who wants my little scraps for collages or something.
I save all of mine in various bags and drawers - and recently when I cleaned up, realized I have enough to fill a laundry basket! So I read through all your comments for ideas. I like to think I'll use bits of them for facings and small pieces, but I don't remember them when I'm cutting out. Eventually when they've been around for too long, I'll toss them. I wish we had textile recycling like they do in the UK - great idea!
ReplyDeleteI have recently used my scraps to fill a Tailor's ham and seam roll, though they are small it took a lot of scraps to fill them in. One thing I am still wondering how to recycles are stockings... they break so easily and I always feel guilty about throwing them away. Any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteHmmm, interesting question and some interesting responses. This is of no help to you of course, but I thought I'd answer anyway. What with sewing clothes all day, at work we generate more scraps than you could shake a stick at. We bag them up, send them back to the depot, then they get sold to rag merchants who, in turn, sort them and they get turned into polar fleece, stuffing for sofas etc.
ReplyDeleteI'm really surprised there is no system of textile collection or recycling in the US. How about asking in your local thrift stores what they do with all the garments they can't sell, they must have a system in place other than chucking them in the landfill? Maybe a solution could be found that way? maybe they would accept bags of scraps? I dunno, clutching a straws! Sorry, Ali, I'm probably not helping, I'll shut up now!
Can't wait to see your uniform project creation
xxx
I save my scraps so I can make a cat toy for my Esteemed Sewing Assistant, Bean. Bean only likes the finest handmade odds and ends for his cat toys, like old boxes, rubber bands, old socks filled with catnip, old scraps stitched together and filled with catnip, and nothing store-bought.
ReplyDeleteI use some of my scraps to make fabric labels for the stuff i sell. Although I admit that barely makes a dent in the scraps I have right now! I've heard of people using them to stuff pincushions and the like....I'm also thinking of playing around with doll clothes, just so I won't have to throw them out, lol.
ReplyDeleteI've been saving mine in a big bag, hoping to use them for little projects such as a tailor's ham, etc. After reading these replies, I may use them to stuff some toys too, especially knit ones that I make up. I also love the idea of sabrinaclementine to use them as labels.
ReplyDeleteThrift stores sell their unusable textiles to places that grind them up and use them as, believe it or not, roofing material.
ReplyDelete