Using Small Pieces of Fabric

 Hello Readers. If you sew at all you know fabric scraps tend to multiply quickly. Before you know it you have lots and lots of fabric scraps. (They are like rabbits!) What can you do with them? You can make so many beautiful things by piecing them together in a patchwork style. If they are a bit larger you can make throw pillows. I made Christmas stockings for my family out of sample pieces from the fabric store. Samples are usually 2' by 2'. At least all the ones I have are that size. I decided to use a couple pieces to change up 2 chairs at my house.

  These chairs have been around for a while. They were both items I have scavenged from a yard sale and the side of the street. I wanted to put the floral chair in my school room but it doesn't match. The room is blue and the chair is yellow floral print. 

The little stool was blue and white but it has been used so much it looks a little dingy. I want it in my room at my little desk. The stool is small and the desk is small, they will be perfect. My bedroom is yellow and red so it would be nice if I could find a piece of fabric to match. 

 

I went digging around my fabric closet.......

Most of this fabric came from my mother-in-law. She doesn't sew as much as she used to and after working at a fabric store for 20 years, she had stashed away a lot of fabric. She (And her coworkers.) always took the fabric samples that were going to the trash when the fabric was discontinued. Some of the fabric was extremely expensive and way out of my budget. I love working with the pieces.

I unscrewed the chair seat and used a staple gun to attach the "new" fabric on top of the old fabric. I like these kind of chairs because it is easy to recover them yourself at home. Goodbye floral print! Hello muted blues and greens.

 

The final result looks great and only took about 15 minutes per chair. (Not counting the amount of time it took me to reload the staple gun when it ran out of staples. It took much longer than it should have. I have been using the same staple gun for 20 years and I can never load it correctly the first time.)

 I love this rosy shade of red. And darker colors seem to hold up to kids and real life better than white ever does.

 

 The stool is perfect in my sewing room/office that is also my bedroom. It is a small corner office area and the stool doesn't take up too much room. This little desk is actually a sewing table that belonged to my Grandmom. There is a removable piece in the top and you can set a sewing machine in perfectly. I keep the piece in so I can use it as a desk. This is where I write these blog posts.

 

 

And one more idea for using small fabric pieces. Frame them. I loved this garden scene but only had a tiny scrap of this fabric. It is now at my desk.

 

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.