Weekend Review: Fabric Leftovers

 

Fabric Leftovers / D'Arcy-Jean Milne
Lafayette, CA: C&T, c2006.
96 p.

This is a fun little book I picked up at a thrift shop recently. I'm always looking for new ideas for scrap busting and this looked like there might be some unique projects to try out. 

I liked it, even if some of the 2006 projects are now out of date (ie: cd cover). It's an interesting combination of techniques and projects, and you might be able to adapt some of the techniques to projects of your own that you want to create. 

It starts out with a brief look at organizing and storing scraps for ease of use, some recommended threads and stitches, and a really useful 'processing' overview on how to best cut up ties, sleeves and jeans to get the optimal fabric use out of them. 

She then moves on to techniques: there are 6 covered, two kinds of fabric creation (patchwork and weaving), cording, couching, ruching, stuffed tubes she calls 'beads', and a way to make buttons into decorative blooms. I've seen some of these kinds of things before, but the weaving (into rug hook canvas) in particular was a new idea for me. I can see how these techniques could be adapted into personal projects.

The book then shares 15 projects. There are sculptural things like boxes or folios, some journal and cd covers, bags, wallets, frames, fabric flowers, and little things like stuffed 'candies' and tassels. Some of these I liked and some I had no interest in, but there was a nice variety so readers should be able to find at least one they might like to try. 

I liked the set-up of the book. It was well organized, with lots of large, colourful images of everything discussed. Some of the content may be a little dated now, but the overall techniques and concepts are still valid and useful. I can see how many of them could easily be updated to something contemporary, especially with the renewed interest in patchwork and garment making. A fun discovery!