It is no tale that fashion design is invalid without its canvas – fabrics. Fabrics are of different types, colours, sizes, textures, grains, purposes, etcetera. Without the canvas, the artist cannot express their art and so without fabrics, a designer isn’t even a designer. Fabrics help with expression and so it’s no wonder the number of fabrics that are used day in day out.

To create beautiful clothes we see in stores, the mall, on models and television, be assured that after the main piece of fabric is cut out there are tons that go wasted. These are called scrap fabrics. The life of a fabric can either be linear or a cycle. By linear, the scraps which are at the end of the line are considered rubbish, disposed of and wasted. Scraps that are not recycled make for a large amount of harm to sea life and land pollution in today’s world.

It is essential to adopt a cycle for using fabrics. When the main pieces are gotten, the scraps and other chunks of unwanted pieces can be repurposed into creating beautiful artistic expressions, thereby avoiding wastage and in the long run saving the planet. I share three methods you can recycle your scrap fabrics but it is not at all limited to these ideas. Creativity is genius and you can let your ideas spark and use scraps to make your art!

Blend with other fabrics on a garment

As a fashion designer, I find this the most useful way of repurposing scrap fabrics, especially when they are in large chunks. I can use a fabric I used for a prior project to add an extra spark to a new project (they must match or complement each other of course). This makes for an original piece of clothing with outright prestige that won’t be similar to any other piece out there.

Stuffings for Furniture

Scrap fabrics can be bundled together and used to stuff pieces of furniture like pillows, ottomans, cushions etc. Instead of wasting the scraps, they become fillers for interesting items of furniture, adding life and character to a space.

DIY Projects

Your artistic side can be showcased here. You can use scrap fabrics to make different DIY projects to fill your space and add a new zest to life. Such projects may include frames for pictures and walls amongst many more. As I said, there is no rule, but letting your creativity come to play.