Use ALL the Fabric ~ Strips and Selvages

I’ve been wanting to do this series for a while now! Being a sewer, I have tons of fabric leftovers of all sorts. And I keep ALL of it! It’s multiplying faster since I started making bags to sell on Etsy, so I really need to get it under control. This series is going to talk about using ever last bit of fabric, even the scrummy bits most people throw away. This week, I’m talking about strips and selvages. I’m planning on a post for this every 2 weeks, so I hope y’all enjoy it & find ways to use ALL the fabric!

The first part of this series deals with strips & selvages. Those long edges that come off when trimming fabric. I have a bag FULL of them…

Here’s a better idea of what’s inside that bag…

That’s basically any selvage edge or scrap I have that’s less than an inch thick. The second bag holds selvages with words on them. I like to keep them separated so I don’t have to dig for the wordy ones!

Last year, I started making strip blocks as part of my 100 Day Project on Instagram. I didn’t get many done, so I’m doing it again this year.

For this section of the series, I’m going to talk about how I sew together strips & selvages to make blocks like the one below. I’m aiming for 8.5″ x 6.5″ blocks to make a quilt with. I’ve also used them for bags in my Etsy shop, which is really fun to do!

This is a form of free sewing for me because I kinda throw traditional quilting rules out the window. If you live with the quilt police, you may have to read this in the closet – hee hee! : D

Strips & Selvages

The first thing I do is pick out some strips I’d like to use. Usually I see one that’s interesting & go from there. I picked up the chicken wire print then several lined & plaid prints to go with it. I’ll lay them out on my mat until it’s over the height I want, 8.5″.

Sometimes I find a bunch that are about the same length & sometimes they’re not. That really doesn’t matter because I’ll trim them to shape in the end. Before I start sewing, I set my stitch length to 1.8, which is a fairly tiny stitch. I do this because I use a seam between 1/8″ & 1/4″ depending on what I’m dealing with. That’s also why I lay things out to see if I like it first. Pulling out those tiny stitches is not fun! You’ll also need a hot iron nearby to press as you go.

Some people like to sew strips like this down onto another piece of fabric, but I don’t do that. I also don’t trim things to be straight before sewing the strips together, as you can see below. I’ll use the top fabric as a guide for my seam.

This piece has a frayed edge, as some selvages do. I aligned my next piece with the bottom of the frayed bit. You can see two lines of stitching here because my seam got a little squirrel-y.

After I sew all the strips together, you can see I’m a little short of the 8.5″ I’m aiming for. You can also see the wonkiness of the strips. Like I said, quilting rules don’t apply here!

I decided to add this fun bit of selvage to the top. Since I want to see that frayed edge, I’m laying it on top of the last strip. You could pin it if you want, but I just lift it up and align as I sew.

I’ll take a peak at the back to see if I need to do another line of stitching. Yep, there’s some bits that didn’t get caught…

When you do the seam that way, just remember you will see the stitching on top. I usually use a neutral thread when I do this, so it blends in. Sometimes I like to use a color, so it stands out.

Cutting the Blocks

Once I get the height I need, it’s time to cut some blocks. I usually aim to be a bit higher than the 8.5″, so I can get a straight edge when I cut. You can see I added another frayed selvage edge on top of the bottom strip. I sewed close to each edge, then a wavy line down the center.

This 6.5″ ruler is perfect for this project! I check the height to be sure it’s good, then cut 6.5″ as many times as I can. Then I’ll square up the top and bottom to get my 8.5″ tall blocks.

I got 2 whole blocks & a piece of a block…

To make use of the leftover piece, I sewed vertical strips to the side & trimmed it to size.

This is such a fun thing to do for me! I can just sew & cut & sew some more without thinking too much about it.

Piecing Short Strips

Sometimes strips are not as long as I need for a set. I want to add these blue jean selvages, so I’ll need to seam them together before I sew them to the other strips. Yes, I put everything but knit strips in this bag!

Once I seamed that bit, I stitched it to the top of the bottom strip. I wanted the red line on the edge to show. The edges of fabric can be just as interesting as the fabric sometimes!

After I sewed all the strips together, one end seemed slight lower. I just added a short strip to help make up the difference.

It turned out that I didn’t need that short strip after all! You can see just a sliver at the top of the middle block. I spotted the short strip with the chicken on it in my pile & knew it was a perfect match.

As you can see, I don’t follow quilt rules when I do this. It’s a form of free sewing which can be really fun! It also allows me to use more of the strips & get loads of texture in my blocks. Here’s some things to remember if you want to sew some up too:

• Set your sewing machine to 1.8 stitch length. Using smaller stitches helps keep fraying from going past the stitches.
• I use an 1/8″ to 1/4″ seam depending on how wide my strip is.
• If the strip will disappear in the seam, but I love it, I’ll sew it on top of a wider strip.
• Don’t allow the quilt police in while doing this! It’s free form sewing & won’t be exact until you cut your block down.

Now, here’s a diagram of what you might have leftover…

I’ll be going over how to use ALL of these bits, even the scrummy ones during this series. Looking for a different way to use selvage edges? Check out this blog post where I used some to make a lamp shade!

I hope y’all have a fabulous weekend filled with wonderful making! : )