10 Best Ways to Use Scraps for more Sustainable Embroidery

Post Views: 3,969

Great project ideas to use up your scrap materials

You don’t have to buy a bunch of new materials each time you want to start a new project! By reusing your scraps for more sustainable embroidery, you can be kinder to the environment and , and save money and time.

We collected the 10 best ideas on how to use up your leftover fabrics. These innovative ways are great to create a base for your next embroidery project as they can all be machine embroidered. Although some basic sewing skills are required to complete these projects, they come with easy-to-follow instructions and are fairly simple to make.

While machines and design software have certainly made embroidery much easier and accessible to more people, the problem of accumulating scraps from our creative projects still remains. Whether embroidery is your hobby or you run a thriving craft business, here are some tips on how you can use scraps and embroider more sustainably without leaving your house!

Decorated Tea Towels

Cut fabric strips and use them as embellishment on other projects. In this example by Sew4Home, they added a strip of decorative fabric along the edge of tea towels. You can easily add an extra dimension to them with machine embroidery!

Embroidered Journal/Book Cover

An embroidered book cover is a great project for using up small scraps of fabric. Jazz up a basic composition book, notebook or other book with this great ITH project by Lindee Goodall.

Pencil Case

Create a personalized back-to-school gift for the little ones or not so little ones. This super easy project will show you the steps of making and embroidering a pencil case.

Mousepad

The perfect gift and it’s really easy to make. According to How Joyful blog, apart from the drying time, it takes less than 15 minutes! They can be made of any left over fabric you used for a previous project so you could even have matching items in your house. If you are making it for someone special, you can embroider their monogram in one of the corners.

Fabric Coasters

Cute fabric scraps make even cuter coasters! You can really go crazy with small pieces of material and ribbons when making these ones by Green Horned Unicorn. They will sure to cheer up any table. A set of 6 will make a great and unique present too. Turn the creativity up a notch by embroidering the names of drinks or types of wine on them!

Festive Feltie Ornaments

Felties are very easy to make and can give extra cheer to holidays. These Halloween ornaments by Kristie J Smith are super spooky.

Caravan Pincushion

We absolutely fell in love with this adorable vintage caravan pincushion by Crafts Beautiful! Every embroiderer needs at least one of these, so make one for yourself and a friend! Use colorful floral fabrics for a hippy effect and jazz them up with witty embroidery related sayings for even more fun.

In-the-Hoop Sunglasses Case

Keep your glasses or sunglasses scratch free with a lovely embroidered case! Our regular blog contributor Caroline Critchfield from SewCanShe.com came up with a wonderful gift idea, an in-the-hoop sunglasses case project, and we were thrilled.

In-the-Hoop Jar Covers

Create lovely jar covers with no artwork, just using the built in tools and features of Hatch Embroidery. A great ITH project by Lindee Goodall.

‘Christmas Gift’ Appliqué Ornament

You can customize this lovely ornament design by adding your choice of base and appliqué fabric to suit your color scheme for Christmas! A cute project by Meryl Makes.

These are just a few of the many ways you can use all of those extra scraps from your previous embroidery projects so you can practice your craft sustainably. There’s no need to let those extra inches of fabric or threads, buttons, or any other bits and pieces go to waste when you could use them in so many creative ways.

Whether you decide to use your scraps to add more detail to an existing project or save them for your next venture, don’t forget to store your favorite textures, materials, and threads in a box or bag. Not only will you minimize trash, you will also find that right when it’s time to start a fresh design you have a whole load of your favorite pieces right at your fingertips to inspire you.

Another great way to make the most out of your embroidery projects is through the use of modern tools such as Hatch Embroidery software. Hatch helps you come up with new ideas and create new embroidery designs, letting you come up with customized looks which allow for the use of scraps.

You can access this cute Earth Love design by clicking the button below. You will be taken to the Free Design page. You will be asked to sign in or register a free account.

Be sure the download our other great designs too!

Hatch Embroidery software products are in popular use in over 120 countries. It is time to join the global trend and give Hatch a try! The 30-Day Free Trial grants you unlimited use of all the amazing features and the 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee ensures that there is absolutely no risk involved.