5 Ways to Organize and Store Fabric Scraps

Organize and store your fabric scraps in ways that will help you to actually use them! It’s not hard to do, and it could even be fun!

I must admit, I’m a fabric hoarder. But as I mentioned in my post 3 Ways to Organize and Store Fabric, the thing that helps me use my stash the most is having my fabric organized in ways that let me see what I have.

The same principles apply to storing your scraps. But before I store a scrap of fabric, I have to decide how much I love it…

1. My favorite scraps go into my ‘scrap basket tower.’

These are only my favorite scraps, and I love that I can move the tower around. Sometimes it is next to my sewing machine – like when I’m making QAYG fabric or crazy quilt blocks.

But sometimes it’s next to my embroidery machine, like when I’m making little ITH (in the hoop) quilt blocks and projects.

The fabrics scraps in the baskets are organized by color.

A bunch of other people I know use see-through plastic drawers for this so they can see their scraps without opening the drawer. I think that’s AWESOME, but not for me. I just hate plastic dressers – sorry! I’d rather work a little harder digging through baskets. 🙂

2. Turn Your Scraps Into Pre-Cuts

I haven’t tried this tip yet – but it inspires me so much that I really want to. Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet presses and cuts her scraps into the sizes that she uses most so she can quickly make quilts with them. Read more about her technique here.

3. Keep coordinated scraps together.

Sometimes when I finish a quilt or other big project I have a bunch of coordinating scraps that I wouldn’t necessarily LOVE individually – but as a coordinated set, they are just awesome.

As a set I might even have enough for a little quilt, a few zipper pouches, or potholders.

I keep these scraps sorted together in zip lock bags so when I need to stitch up a quick project I already have coordinated fabrics set aside.

4. Treasure Chest Storage

When I have scraps that I don’t love enough to put in the tower, and they aren’t part of a coordinated set, they go in the Treasure Chest.

I can really appreciate having a ‘treasure chest’ of scraps that I like, but don’t love. These scraps are great for testing the tension on my sewing or embroidery machine, sewing a ‘trial version’ of a project, or letting my kids sew with.

When my treasure chest gets too full to handle, I have a friend who is happy to clean it out. Yay!

5. Unusable scraps can be shredded into stuffing.

Stephanie of the blog Swoodson Says has a great solution for scraps that are even too small or ugly for the ‘treasure chest.’ She shreds them up with her rotary cutter and uses them for stuffing! Read more about her scrap solution here.

What’s your fabric scrap situation like? Do you have a storage solution that works best for you? Tell us about it in the comments! Or tell us which one of these that you are going to try.

If you need help with your stash of bigger fabrics, check out 3 Ways to Organize and Store Fabric – there’s even a video where I show you my system!

xoxo,