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What to do with Tiny Fabric Scraps – creating your very own fabric

In my way with words, I must convey to you the excitement I felt making today’s craft. By chance I fell across the Pinterest pin for this – another serendipitous moment for sure. Imagine a plethora of fabric snippets destined for not a great deal else other than perhaps the stuffing in a pillow. Now allow your imagination to drift to one of the most enjoyable creative processes with all those snippets. Today I am going to show you what to do with tiny fabric scraps. When you’ve poured your coffee come with me; this I promise you is quite something else…

With nothing more than a pile of trimming ends and waste, you can create your very own unique piece of fabric. Follow this process for what to do with tiny fabric scraps, beginning with your own small mountain of pieces and you will actually create fabric no one else has. One off fabric to work your crafting magic with. You will need a sewing machine for this craft so if you don’t have one, allow me this moment to offer a few solutions. Beg, borrow, steal or buy one. You truly do not want to miss out on this.

Start with a lone colour or a flamboyant rainbow mix, you choose.

Any little sliver of lace, thread, ribbon or material works and in my world, a variety of pretty vintage dishes, each spilling over with exciting treasures, now sit on the craft room window ledge waiting for their moment. Even ends of sewing cotton work for this craft. If perhaps like me you enjoy typing a quote or two onto your fabrics, there’s a place for those as well. And when the colourful odds and ends have mounted up, another glorious piece of homemade fabric is in the making. Not surprisingly, I chose all the pinks for my first attempt. And please note, this was my very first attempt; delighted doesn’t cut it.

Choose a piece of backing fabric. I think mine is a calico of some sort. It’s a large end of roll piece I inherited way back when and I have not personally tried another backing fabric for this project. I have seen others used elsewhere and cannot imagine why a lightweight cotton or linen would not yield similar results.

Scatter your scraps over your backing fabric covering as much of the material as you can, although take care to ensure the layer is not too thick; you will see why soon. Now take a sheet of water-soluble fabric and lay over the top of your scraps. Sometimes this medium is clear like mine, sometimes white. Water-soluble fabric was an investment piece for me since I had never heard of it before and this pack does go a long way. It also appears to have a great many more uses, so there will be more new discoveries and blogs I am sure.

Your next job is to pin at random, everything together and then the fun begins. Using a strongish thread, coloured or plain – I used pink – sew all over the soluble fabric any way you choose. Backwards, forwards, left and right and unhunch those shoulders and get carried away with the entire blissful process. Moments of crazy and wild abandon on the machine. No straight edges, no measurements, no rules. Quite liberating for a self confessed, super organised control freak I can tell you. I have seen on a video somewhere this stage carried out with an embroidery foot. I don’t have one (yet) so I switched my machine to a decorative stitch on offer. I did have to play around a little until the stitch tension and length were quite right for my fabric, which is why you don’t want your trimming pile to be too thick.

Try to ensure your gaps are not too gappy since the fabric scraps will come away if not secured within your many stitches.

Then when you are satisfied with your work, rinse the entire piece under a cool tap until, like magic, the water-soluble fabric simply disappears. Make sure you’ve made a thorough job of rinsing and then leave your fabric somewhere to dry out. Overnight if you have any patience. Mine was placed on top of a hot radiator and dry in a matter of hours. No patience at all.

And just look at this result. Even typing this I am bubbling over with excitement. Can you imagine all the possibilities for your new fabric? My mind went into overdrive. I will never again wonder what to do with tiny fabric scraps.

I almost love the new fabric too much to use which is typical of the old me. The one that saves new tea towels ‘for best’ because they are too pretty to dry the dishes. Yet we evolve as human kind and there is no more ‘best’ for me. Best is for every day. And so far, I’ve added pieces to this, I have used a slice to make a heavenly craft – coming soon (there is a hidden clue in there by the way) a beautiful floral page has been created for this – coming soon as well. And there is a leftover piece which sits resplendent on top of a pile of vintage fabrics all vying for my attention and until I decide it’s final purpose, my scrap fabric will remain a thing of beauty and I shall simply admire it. Often.

I’m currently working with blues; tartans and stripes, soft blues and even a dash of vivid cobalt, my favourite blue of them all, to which I’ve added a few selvedge edges of materials I’ve stashed away, not having known then what their fate might be. And growing and fading slightly on the windowsill on another pretty vintage plate, are bits of milky creams and taupe, pale greys and hues of every single white piece I have.

To enjoy a creative process is in itself a triumph, what a treat it is to be rewarded with one-of-a-kind fabrics. Now, what to do with tiny fabric scraps for you? What colour will you start with? And when you’ve created your own unique fabric, what will it become? Until next week x


I hope you enjoyed today’s craft which although totally new to me, is not entirely new to a great many others judging by the numbers in a google search. I was inspired myself, by this particular post

22 Comment

  1. What a beautiful project and those colours are so lovely! I’m going to start keeping all my tiny snippings now 🙂💕

    1. Thank you lovely Mel, this is truly a rewarding craft… I have a growing collection of many colours now! I shall look forward to your beautiful creations x

  2. Heavenly indeed Helen!…. a brilliant use of all those scraps!… and I have thousands!… I’ll be off to get some water soluble fabric now:) xxx

    1. Oh my word, the beautiful crafts you will create for sure Sara and of course your machine does have an embroidery foot! You will enjoy this so much. Just click the link in the blog to go to Amazon if there is none locally and happy snippet saving!x

  3. I love this, Helen!! So glad to finally have my computer up and running again. I couldn’t get it worked on because of covid. I missed your wonderful posts! I am going to try this project, since I have so many Shabby Chic pieces of fabric that I’ve saved….lots of little bits and bobs that will work for this, too! Can I buy the water soluble fabric at a fabric shop, or would I have to order it online? Thank you for sharing this delightful idea. Debbie xo

    1. How lovely to hear from you Debbie and I’m glad your computer works again. Yes, you should be able to buy at any well stocked fabric shop, if not Amazon has a variety to choose from. I can only imagine the pretties you will make from this with all your gorgeous fabric, enjoy and thank you for stopping by today!x

    1. It’s simply the most wonderful way to use up pretty waste isn’t it Nanhe? I am so pleased you enjoyed the read and craft and grateful for you stopping by to let me know, much love as always x

  4. You have such a talent at putting things together and they all look so gorgeous and pretty!
    I discovered water soluble fabric on a course I did over 15 years ago and for a while I’d forgotten all about it so thank you for reminding me how amazing it is. I will dig it out this week and have another play, might even enjoy cutting up my fabric just so I can create a new piece from the scraps!
    I genuinely look forward to your new projects, thank you for bringing a whole lot of pretty happiness to the week.

    1. Dear Geri what a kind message to receive, thank you so very much for writing. Isn’t this stuff pure magic? There are so many more things which can be done with it too (apparently) so I shall be checking that out. I giggled at the very idea of you chopping away at your fabric to create a pile of scraps!!I am so pleased you enjoy the blog and crafts, they are such a pleasure to share, thank you for being here x

  5. This looks amazing….. such a brilliant idea to use up my precious bits and pieces. Love it. .. can’t wait for a wet day so I can start. 😘

    1. Oh this is marvellous to read Jeannie thank you so much for leaving me a comment, it always makes the entire process of creating and writing, so worthwhile! The fabric in itself if full of your precious pieces, would make a perfect keepsake/wall hanging etc. Enjoy the craft and do share if you’re able, I love to see more interpretations of the idea! x

  6. WHAT THE?!? That really is magic!! How clever is that surely this opens a “new take” door (?) on all your previous crafts!? Wow wow wow Mum – looks like you’ve given lots of people a busy weekend haha! Surely the possibilities are now endless…..LOVE YOU LOVE YOUR POSTS xxxx

    1. Yes yes yes! Magic and endless possibilities!!! Thank you for your lovely comment and support always darling and I love you too! xx

  7. Oh my giddy aunt!!! This is absolutely mind blowing, and wonderful! I am searching for water soluble fabric right now! Utterly ingenious, and soooooo pretty! Thank you for sharing. ❤️ Tania

    1. I would have bet my socks that if you didn’t know this craft already you would absolutely love it Tania and I simply cannot wait to see what beautiful makes you will create from it! Thank you for your lovely comment x

    1. Isn’t it amazing Nancy? Even now when I’ve made several colours I still can’t believe it’s made from bits that would usually end up in the bin! Thank you for reading and for leaving me a comment on the blog itself, means a lot x

  8. Oh wow! Water soluble fabric! What a revelation this is….. I’ve never heard of it.Ive never been good at throwing anything away, especially fabric related and so ‘this idea is just my excuse not to now😂I can’t wait to see what you do with this. I’m also going to show Georgie this technique as her final collection is based on re using old clothes.

    1. Yes, perfect for Georgie! I still cannot believe you can achieve such a pretty craft from a pile of ‘bits’ once tried, you’ll be hooked! Thank you for your lovely comment x

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