What do you do with your smallest fabric scraps? The scraps that remain after cutting out a sewing pattern from your fabric. The pieces that are actually too small to use for a patchwork project or small accessories, for example.

Do you throw them away, or do you still use them? Here you can see what I do with them!

The smallest scraps of fabric

I used to throw away the smallest scraps of fabric you really can’t use anymore. But in the past few years, I became more involved in sustainability and found out how much fabric and clothing is actually thrown away. So now I don’t want to throw those pieces anyway.

I now collect the smallest pieces of fabric in a container under my sewing table. If I have small scraps of fabric left over after a sewing project, they immediately go into the bin. And sometimes I sit down for a while and cut them up to tiny pieces of approximately 1 by 1 or 2 by 2 cm. Depends on how big the pieces or strips of fabric are that I have lying around.
I keep the scraps in the same container until I have enough to use.

I use the timy pieces of fabric as a filling, usually for a pouf. That turns out to work very well too! Especially with a small size pouf, a meditation pouf for example. The filling makes the pouf nice and firm and a bit heavy. And the pouf is not too big, so you don’t have to save that long before you have enough pieces of fabric to fill it.

What else can you use as stuffing?

In fact, in addition to your fabric scraps, you can also cut ALL the other unusable textiles you have into pieces and use them as filling.

For example:
• Cut-off threads from knitting or crocheting projects
• Socks with big holes that cannot be repaired (those thin socks you can buy)
• Underwear with holes, which you can no longer repair (you can reuse the waist elastic for a new pair of homemade underpants if you want)
• Other worn-out clothing, of which you can cut off the usable parts first, the rest you can put in the bin
• Fabric or clothing with stains that will not come out in the wash. Here too you can first cut off the usable fabric and store it, the discarded pieces can be used as stuffing after your cut it in tiny pieces

If you’re using old clothes, wash it first before using it as a filling!

Some tips for using your scraps as filling/ stuffing

– Cut your scraps of fabric to a maximum size of 2 × 2 cm.
– The size of the pieces does not matter that much, pieces of fabric of different sizes are also fine
– I keep my small pieces of fabric in a plastic container with a lid, to keep the dust out
– Because you cut the scraps & the worn-out textile into small pieces, the filling becomes nice and compact. If you would not cut them, you will get bumps in your end result

Which items can you fill up with your homemade stuffing?

Here are some ideas for using your homemade sustainable filling!

– I prefer to use the filling for meditation poufs

– I once filled a pincushion with it, but that was no success. It actually made the pincushion too compact.

– But that gave me an idea to make pattern weights with fabric scraps as filling! I still have to try that out

– You can also make a doorstop or draft hose and fill it with mini scraps

– I think you can also fill up pet toys very well with it (a fabric play bone for your dog for example)

– Fill up an eye pillow, for yoga, meditation or another relaxation moment (and maybe you can add some dried lavender!)

I would love to know if you also keep your little fabric scraps, or maybe you will from now on!