Waste not

It’s been bothering me for a while the amount of scrap fabric I produce that isn’t big enough to be useful. Some of it can be composted but a lot can’t, so it goes to landfill. When you consider the resources that go into producing fabric (water, labour, petrochemicals and so on) this is an appalling waste.

But what to do?

Here’s one idea. Take a remnant of upholstery fabric and cut six equally sized squares. In this case about 5ocm x 50cm.

Sew the first two together using a basting stitch, then insert a zip along this stitch line and pull out your basting, making sure the ends are secure.

Then sew the rest of your squares together in a hopscotch arrangement to form the top, sides and bottom of a square. Overlock your seams to make them strong.

Open the zip and turn your square around the right way. Proceed to fill it with your fabric scraps until it is full and you have a footstool.

Try to keep the cat off the work in progress…