It’s that time of year again—time for upcycling, sewing, and quilting with scraps!

National Upcycling Day is this weekend, so let’s gather ye scraps and turn them into something beautiful. We’re including several project options here, from the very small, like a cord keeper, to the only somewhat large, like a quilt block that you could potentially turn into a large quilt, if you’re feeling especially scrap adventurous. This is a familiar subject for Thimbles, so if none of these objects appeal to you, check out Our Favorite Scrap Projects and MORE of our Favorite Scrap Projects for even more options!

Travel Cup Cozy

You’ll need some faux leather scraps to make this adorable embroidered travel cup cozy from BERNINA. If you don’t have any faux leather on hand, we have several colors available here. This quick project can be finished in a single evening and is easy enough for beginners. You’ll also need BERNINA’s Toolbox software, which offers several compatible designs for this project and more. 

Access the free pattern for the Travel Cup Cozy (A 30-day free trial for Toolbox is linked here as well!).

Rope Bowl

This Rope Bowl from Sew Can She is such a fabulous way of making any and all of your scraps work together in a single, cohesive project. Caroline includes different options for bowl shapes and says the same technique can be used to make trivets, placemats, table toppers, and more. 

This is an incredibly fast, easy, and scrap busting project. It’s a great project for that stash of selvages and fabric strips we all have. We love the idea of making these for summer barbeques. Just line the bowls with napkins and fill with chips or other snacks and you’ll have a really pretty table!

Learn how to make a rope bowl with fabric scraps.

Upcycled Tote

We love an upcycled tote (we featured two different styles last year!) so we’re always excited to see a new, innovative style of upcycled tote enter the scene. We really love this version from Babylock because of the woven design. 

Created from strips of fabric, the woven section actually continues up through the bag to create the straps. Babylock upcycled several different kinds of scrap in this design—old denim, a woven table runner, recycled fabric, and fabric strips. And yet somehow, it all looks very intentional. Love!

Learn how to make the Upcycled Tote from Babylock. 

String Quilt Block

Diary of a Quilter’s Amy Smart made the beautiful “scrappy strings block” quilt seen above using Film in the Fridge’s string quilt block tutorial paper piecing method. We love the way it turned out! Making just one scrappy string block at a time, it’s possible to design anything from a mini quilt to a queen-size quilt. 

We love this design for how effortlessly it marries fabrics, even those of drastically differing hues. Check out Film in the Fridge’s finished quilt, which she aptly named Kaleidoscope:

Another thing we love about this project is it’s something you could always be working on. Keep collecting and incorporating scraps and build out your quilt block by block. It’s an incredibly versatile design, and surprisingly unfussy. FitF used fabrics of varying widths (which we think keeps more accessible, when it comes to finding suitable scraps), and her paper piecing method is straightforward and easy to follow.

Learn how to make a String Quilt Block.

Pen Holder

This cute Pen Holder from BERNINA is not just a great use for some of your denim scraps. It’s also a really simple, approachable project for a young sewist. And, something they’ll use when it’s time for back to school! 

We’re hosting another year of Kids Camp and introducing Advanced Kids Camp for those who attended last year. The Pen Holder is a nice project to work on once camp wraps. It should only take one evening to complete and makes great use of any jeans that suffered the fate of a recent growth spurt.

Learn how to sew a Pen Holder with BERNINA.

Lay Flat Shoe Storage Bags

It takes just a half-yard of fabric to sew these lay flat shoe storage bags from Sew Can She. But as shown above, you can really make these bags in all sizes, with whatever scraps you have on hand.

We love these for storage AND for travel. Having a pretty bag to protect your shoes while traveling this summer is such a great idea. We also love that these can be stored easily and without taking up much room when not in use. 

Sew a Shoe Storage Bag with Sew Can She. 

Cord Keeper

You don’t realize how useful a cord keeper really is until you start using one, and then you wonder what you ever did without it. It’s such a necessity for staying organized while traveling. It’s also great for wrangling overly long cords you’re using at home. 

Leafy Treetop’s Cord Keepers take only 20 minutes to make and only use a few scraps of fabric. We love these as party favors, stocking stuffers, and for using the very last bit of that favorite fabric you didn’t have the heart to toss. 

Learn how to sew your own Cord Keepers with Leafy Treetop.

Woven Clutch

Babylock has designed some really cute woven projects with scraps recently. Like the tote shared earlier, the Woven Clutch aims to cust through some of your fabric scraps and arrange them in a really attractive woven design. We love Babylock’s suggestion to use your sewing machine to embellish the strips. This is another project that looks fun to make while also proving really useful when you’re done!

Sew the Woven Clutch from Babylock.

Scrappy Coasters

These Scrappy Coasters from BERNINA use an assortment of fabric strips and can be completed in a single evening. We love that designer Minki Kim took her leftover scraps from this project and turned them into an additional zipper pouch. Nothing goes to waste with upcycling!

Do you save your scraps for upcycling? Do you have a favorite scrap buster you return to time and again? Tag us in your projects on Instagram and Facebook so we can see what you’re making!

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