A Tale from the Scrap Heap

This is a Tale from the Scrap Heap of Flaming Nora. The woman has scraps, and more than most. A long time ago from a far away part of London she sent me a bundle of scraps and said 'make something'. 
  

I got mostly silk douppion in beautiful jewel colours.

So I began thinking about what to make with these scraps?  As I was hanging out the washing, I realised that many people comment on my 'fancy' peg bag, made from scraps so called 'luxurious' scraps, the floral Liberty fabric is from a skirt I made for our honeymoon 8 years ago and it's lined with silk douppion scraps patched together. It's a little faded and worn, but every time I hang out yet another load, a flashback of lying on the beach in Antigua makes me smile. 

That's when I decided that these beautiful bold coloured silks were perfect to cheer up the dull everyday chores of domestic life. This coincided neatly with my desperate attempts to tidy, sort and organise my ramshackle house, so it's guilt free crafty time - it has a purpose.

 

First up I made a carrier bag tidy, despite always taking bags with me when I go shopping they still manage to worm their way into the house. 

 

A lot of my scarps were long strips, so they inspired this make. I used a run and fell seam to join shorter lengths together, then french seamed the strips together, I decided it may only be a bag tidy but silk deserves to be finished nicely.

A piece of cord from an old carrier bag provided the drawstring top and a scrap of elastic at the bottom lets me grab a bag quickly. It looks mighty cheery too.

My second idea came about by the death of our fridge/freezer. When the new one arrived I couldn't bring myself to fill up the front with all the notes/reminders/bills etc. that had messily cluttered the old one. So I made some pockets. 

I left some raw edges on this one, I like the way the shot in the fabric gives you a contrasting frayed edge.

I zigzagged the smaller pieces together to get my pocket size (lay it on top of some newspaper when you do this, it stops the puckering and just rips away after)

A scrap of my own denim was the perfect backing, I stitched some rigilene (plastic boning) along the back so the pocket didn't sag when on the fridge - you could stitch in a channel for an old ruler / piece of mount board etc to do this. (make sure it's not something too heavy).
 

Stitch on your pockets, stick on your magnets,

Now you have a tidy fridge, at least on the outside.



My third make was a super quick and easy doorstop, there is a door that nearly knocks me out daily, why I haven't done something about it until now is beyond me. 

I only had a tiny bit of green, so patched it on with the zigzag again to keep as much of it as I could .  I made a denim inner bag and filled it with dried beans (rice works just as well).

 

Perfect, except it looks too much like a pillow and there is usually a teddy sleeping on it.


If you made it all the way to the end of this enormous post you deserve a reward - head over to Flaming Nora and get yourself a bag of free scraps (you just pay the cost of the postage to you). Make something fabulous and show it off.

 

I still have a few scarps left, I'm waiting for inspiration to hit me for these. Happy scrapping!