One Woman’s Trash is the Same Woman’s Treasure
Every sewist is familiar with the long, skinny scraps of fabric left lying around after a project is successfully completed. Scraps from alterations or awkwardly shaped patterns can pile up into a mismatched rainbow crowding your space. This was certainly the case at the end of my semester-long sewing course, so I want to show you what I did to utilize these scraps!
Instead of focusing on creating a structural shape, I looked for a way to sew these pieces into a visual artwork. Using traditional quilting techniques as inspiration, I came up with a design made of long organic shapes and many different colors!
Design Process
My idea is an interpretation of a sandy beach landscape, but I could have made a portrait, a message, or anything abstract. Personally, I liked the idea of a beach the most and happened to have lots of different blues to work with.
To create this piece, I had a rough design in mind, but ultimately I made it up as I went. This gave me the freedom to try out different fabrics and create a naturally flowing piece. It was challenging at first to learn how to sew different curves together so that they would lie flat, but once I figured that out, my imagination and sewing machine did the rest of the work! Depending on the level of difficulty you are comfortable with (or how much time you want to spend,) you can choose to work only with straight edges. There are lots of options to personalize your quilt art, whether you are layering fabrics, trying out different textures, or using curved scraps.
Test it out!
If you wanted to try this yourself, I would recommend choosing a few different colors to play with and then try to create the piece as it happens! By this I mean: don’t get caught up in the details of planning and cutting everything out. Take a risk, start sewing, and let the piece take shape through creativity instead of precision!
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