Bouncing Around My Room: Come Along and Ride on a Scrap-tastic Voyage

I've been feeling a little claustrophobic in my sewing room these days. I can never say no to fabric 'kick downs' or clothing people no longer wear. This has resulted in my sewing room being stuffed to the gills.

Such is the life of a pack-rat, but even more of an earth conscious crafter. There are SO many existing materials already made and ready for use.

I believe absolutely everything can be used again someday, whether it be packaging styrofoam or the thinnest scraps of fabric from my serger. I even fold up the wrapping paper from the gifts I have received.

I try to stay organized, I really do. Nevertheless, I am an atypical Taurus and the definition of unorganized. Much to my dismay, this chaos I live, breathe, and create for myself can stifle my creativity and overstimulate me more than you can believe.

Every so often I have to force myself to resituate everything back into "order".

I started with my dresser that houses my fun smaller cuts of fabrics. I folded and color sorted every last piece.

scrap spaghetti

rainbow goodness

browns to whites

My sense of accomplishment did not last long.

that's right folks, it's a cube of scraps

I looked around my sewing room saw that I had three fruit boxes FULL of random scraps. I knew what I had to do. I dumped every single box on my floor to force myself to deal with it. I color sorted all the woven fabrics and threw all the jersey scraps into another box. I ended up with a giant garbage bag stuffed with tiny fabric scraps too small for sewing. Of course I am not going to just throw this stuff away. This has become my pillow stuffing source.

Ta da!
Fast forward to a couple days later,,,,,,

A couple of work buddies and I hung out and got crafty together. I packed up my back-up sewing machine and my good ole 'Rock Steady' with color sorted scraps in hand.

action shot

It was so much fun to share with them what I love. I taught them how to thread the machine and straight stitch. They patched up larger pieces to make a couple of throw pillows (stuffed with my aforementioned tiny scraps) , while my Miguel and I patched up smaller pieces. The patchwork will be used for a house warming present for a dear friend....more on that on a later day.