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Archive for the ‘Tutorials’ Category

What to do with those scraps, the little ones!

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

On one of my e-lists, someone asked (hi Janice in WNY!) how to deal with small scraps. Well, I’ve got a good one that works well for me. Do you do fusible applique? If so, this is what I do–this of this as a mini-tutorial. If not, omit the adding fusible part. First, I fuse up the scraps.

FUSING:
Set out a “chunk” or length of fusible web on your ironing surface. I prefer Misty Fuse or Wonder Under, with the “business” (fusible) side facing UP. (If using Misty Fuse you’ll need to lay down parchment paper or a non-stick applique press sheet first, then put the Misty Fuse on top.)

Lay your scraps out wrong side down on the fusible, fitting the odd shapes together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Lay a non-stick applique press sheet or parchment paper (Reynolds brand seems to work best—the “organic” / “green” varieties don’t seem to have as much release coating on them and can stick) on top.

Iron.

Carefully pull the scraps apart.

Or, if I want to create “yardage” I’ll cut a few lengths off fabric in the stash cupboard and fuse them up

NOW…SORT AND STACK

Get a stack of small boxes. I use Clementines boxes (mandarin oranges of a sort), but shoe boxes, boot boxes, Amazon boxes or even nice Rubbermaid would work. Sort the scraps by color family. Here’s some of the contents of the “warms” box:

I keep my stack of Clementine boxes in Eli’s walker-wagon from when he was a toddler (please tip head sideways…photo shows vertical in iPhoto, but loads sideways…sorry!). Since the Clementine boxes have these little “pokey up” posts on the corners, I can stack them criss cross in a neat (well…sorta) tower by my work table.

Currently I have:

Earth-black-white (this includes everything from snow to sand to rock to dirt to black)
Greens
Blues and purples
Yellows, oranges and reds
“Fancy stuff” (this includes sheers, silks, sparkly nonsense, tulle, etc)

When I want to put together a postcard, or am working on a project with fusible, then I have a stash with a wide array of colors. Sometimes I even cut a chunk of fabric (instead of using just scraps) maybe 9×12 or 7×14, and fuse that up and add it to the boxes. Here’s a small project in its early stages. I’ve set out the boxes in an arc around my groady cut-n-press (it was SO decrepit I fused some ironing board cloth to the top!):

Cheers, Sarah