Fabric scraps in the artist's studio

Are you a fabric scrap collector? How do you keep your scraps stored? And how do you divide them up - colourways, reproduction, type of print? I may not buy oodles and oodles of fabric but nothing gets thrown away.

Coffee cans was the best way to store each different colourway when I first started keeping my scraps. My husband and I drank a lot of coffee so we bought those big tin cans to save a little money (we weren't coffee snobs - all we wanted was a caffeine jolt).

I ran them through the dishwasher to get them cleaned up. Then when I filled the can with the scraps I labelled the plastic cover with the colour and type eg. Reds - hand dyed pima cotton.

We also bought see-through plastic storage jars of treats for our dogs. After a while I found these were a much better way to store my fabric scraps because I could see the colours in each jar. That's why you can see more storage jars in the picture than the coffee cans.

You've probably worked out now how I divide my fabric scraps. By colour and by type. I even have a separate storage jar of shibori scraps but as there are so few of them I put all the colours together.

Both the coffee cans and see-thru storage jars are stackable so they don't take up too much space. The drawback is when you want a scrap from the bottom of the pile you have to dislodge all the cans and jars on top.

To get around this problem, a couple of years ago Jo-Anns were selling those RubberMaid double drawer storage units so I was able to buy two, each time using my Jo-Anns 50% off coupon. Notice they have reduced the coupon to 40% these days - cheek! These drawers are stackable as well but you don't have to move a pile of things off the top when you want scraps from the bottom. You just open a drawer.

Wouldn't you know, JoAnns stopped selling these drawers so I couldn't make a section of them. Raspberry! So now I buy their stackable storage units which are open and you can reach your hand inside.

The basket full of scraps in the picture is my 'temporary' scrap catcher. While I am working on a piece I throw all the bits into the basket and then when I get a moment I sort through it and put the scraps into their respective storage. Notice how full the basket is? Shows you how often I get around to sorting it!

Back to the Artist's Home Studio

Rose Rushbrooke
Artist, Quiltmaker,
Fractalist and Character Animator