I've had some questions recently regarding scrap storage. I thought I would share my process. (I feel like I'm revealing a lot of myself here, so please, go easy on me.)
I really like using up every last bit, most of you know that. But it's time really consuming. And it requires a lot of organization. I'm getting there, but I have a lot of room to improve. This is my preferred method. At least for now.
First, when I'm cutting, I put all my extra fabric in a bin that sits next to my cutting area. This is a new thing for me. I used to just throw the extras anywhere and leave them wherever they landed. It made for an extremely messy sewing room after a project. And clean up took forever. The box helps a lot. When it's full, I sort. What a novel idea. :)
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I take out all the larger pieces and sort them by color. Bonnie has an impressive
scrap users system. And I have tried something similar once, but for me, it didn't work. I do a lot of improvisational piecing and I don't like trimming down fabric to certain sizes. I like having random sized scraps. So the color sorting method works for me. The smaller boxes are just cheap plastic shoe box-sized storage bins.
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Pink and white scraps seem to rule the roost.
Are you surprised?
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The "pretty" salvages are put in one box. (I like using my fabric
storage cubes for these.)
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Then I put aside the strings and not so pretty salvage pieces, to be used for
knit rugs.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9kbUv9dzMFxGG6T6bUr1SM1Yp25-IYWAzW7loVpdEYxDmt5Ao9MgNxvEQtNSbeqfg-1UwwuVgBkcLl7o7_VhkdPRrRIi22vdA9Ad8XeKjdgnEfpljaSvLbzmGUUlP5TA9uRHfTA/s320/IMG_8414.JPG)
These pieces are perfect sizes for my
spiderweb scrap quilt.
They are 1"-2" wide, approximately and most are not very long, maybe 6" or less.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIyzgV6TzTGTd1bGFCk_DuiJ5kDlKf8iShcQgnRULk3rTgJDMPQRtPYUJShRzTxyLVHfO-QuAuMyBhyphenhyphenWCmmSL-pZae-pAMea1qos1Urg4w_WYI-UZG0PR6mf4wvwEnb8vUlRDdlw/s320/IMG_8415.JPG)
Then I have the strings that are too wide for the knit rug, but too skinny for the spiderweb quilt. These are set aside for
card making.
I have a small stack of 2.5" squares.
They are nice standard size square to have on hand.
I think most of them are leftovers from projects over the years.
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Now this is where it gets ridiculous. Snippets. These are less than 2.5" square. I think most are 1" x 2" or so. But I have
used these. So I continue to save them.
Then I have scraps in bags. These are a mixture of things. Some are projects that I wanted to save the scraps for another project...someday. The green scraps I liked too much to put in with the other greens, so I bagged them. Then I have my red and green bag-scraps for a Christmas quilt...someday. If I would recommend one thing, I would say, DON'T START storing fabric in plastic bags. It's dangerous. And...I think they multiply in the back of a dark closet.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtuhibsdLI9BD8TDEj5UMI4PnmWe8Bzx7tKnPPCYnAhanb0_v7wvcw1J6q6h_f0w2wtcI7wcz2ANXdn5BheTcImIK-tEmaefjQqlKIsZk6OfbzuIw1ckU6ZBIOmndysIqpgW3p6w/s320/IMG_8186.JPG)
And this is my blue + purple bin. And misc. fabrics.
I really need to sort through this monster.
It's embarrassing.
So there you have it.
Now, how do YOU sort your scraps?