My Scrap Drawer Overfloweth

Anyone who sews or quilts knows that fabric scrap storage can be a challenge.

One drawer in my fabric dresser is set aside just for scraps that are smaller than a fat eighth.

I’ve been storing all the really small fabric scraps that I use for applique in plastic zip bags and then when I’m finished the applique project, I put those bags back in the scrap drawer. But as you can see from the photo below… the drawer barely closes with what it’s got in it right now.

There was no way those three bags of scraps were going back into that drawer.

Admittedly, the zip bags aren’t the most elegant way to store them but I like being able to dump them out on the work area next to my ironing station and search through them for just the right bit of fabric. It’s like a treasure hunt for each pattern piece.

But I also like to have things put away in their own place when I’m not using them.

I decided there had to be a better way to store my applique scraps.

Last year, I had made a Fat Quarter Pop-Up for my Santa Sack Swap partner, Pauline as one of the six handmade gifts we were to make for each other.

Now the one I made for Pauline was the original Fat Quarter Pop-Up with the 5.5″ frame and way too small for what I needed. But the pop-ups also come in 8″, 10.5″ and 14″ wire frames. There’s even a really cute mini 3.5″ frame but that would be wayyyyy too small. 🙂

I picked up a 10.5″ frame at my LSQ. You can buy the pattern for the larger ones but I had the instruction sheet from the 5.5″ one. The measurements for a larger one were easy enough to figure out.

The Home Sweet Home fabric is such fun that I’d bought a yard of it. A couple of hours cutting and sewing and I had this:

Here’s what it looks like when it’s collapsed, but I’ll probably never need to collapse it:

Now I can dump out the scraps and treasure hunt for just the right piece.

And when I’m done with them, they can be put back in the Home Sweet Home Pop-up, ready for next time.

This method of fabric scrap storage is much more elegant, don’t you think? 

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