Ever-decreasing Sized Scraps

drjanmartin
4 days ago
2 min read

ScrapHappy November 2025

by Jan

Unless you only sew no-waste patterns, making with fabric always creates scraps. To begin with, the scraps are often big enough to make other things with, which results in smaller scraps. The cycle continues with ever-decreasing sized pieces of fabric, until all you have a 'crumbs' only good for a crumb quilt or stuffing (unless you know better). I try to divert as much fabric as possible before I get to the really tiny pieces stage and my preferred option is rag rug making.

I like shaggy rag rugs - simply short strips of fabric threaded through hessian. There's no need to tie off the strips as the tension created by adding extra material between the woven threads of the hessian holds the whole thing in place. You can make them from sewing scraps, but they are also a great way to repurpose old clothes. At their most simple, no special tools are required - just scissors to cut the fabric and something to poke the pieces through the hessian (an old knitting needle, for example). However, you can buy a fabric gauge to help cut the strips to the right length and there are rugging tools to prod, hook or pull the strips through the backing.

In our shaggy rag rugs class, participants get the chance to try out all the different tools. At the last class, absolutely everyone preferred using a sprung rugging tool, but this isn't always the case so a class is a great way (as with any craft) to experiment and play. Here's what we got up to last time: