If you read my blog, you know how much I love Liberty lawn. I got these tiny fabric scraps of Liberty Betsy from Ava and Neve and wanted to find a way to turn the tiny scraps into a usable piece of fabric for a project. I decided to experiment using iron-on vinyl that I talked about here to tack down my fabric so I didn’t need to stitch down all the raw edges. I am so pleased with how this laminate pouch turned out.
If you want to try this out, here’s how you do it.
1. Start off with a piece of fabric for your backing. Mark the area where you want to place your fabric scraps. I suggest a plain fabric piece that is a neutral color. This prevents any color that may show through if the pieces you are laying on top is a light color. Here I marked the seam allowances for my pouch so I wouldn’t glue pieces all the way to the edge. This reduces your seam allowance bulk when you are turn the fabric inside out.
2. Use basting glue or glue stick to adhere your fabric scraps to your backing piece. You can try fusible web but I think it would make your fabric stiffer and with the vinyl on top it would make the fabric harder to turn inside out. Here I used some Aleene’s basting glue and started laying down my fabric scraps. I also tried glue stick but found the basting glue was more permanent so the pieces didn’t come off as easily.
3. When you’re done you’ll end up with a piece of backing fabric with a bunch of tiny pieces of scraps. Iron down the scraps to get out the wrinkles. You want the surface to be as flat as possible so the vinyl will adhere smoothly without any bumps. Cut your iron-on vinyl slightly smaller then your backing piece and iron on according to the instructions. I used the iron on vinyl left over from my laminate pouch tutorial. You can read more about my experience with this iron on vinyl here.
4. You can choose to glue down more scraps for the other side of your pouch or use a solid piece of fabric. I didn’t have enough Betsy scraps so I choose similar style scrap pieces for the other side of the pouch.
5. I used a piece of pink Betsy for the interior of my pouch. I opted to use french seams like I did in the laminate pouch tutorial I posted here. Here is the interior with the french seams before I turned it right side out.
The pros of this method is you don’t have to stitch down all the tiny fabric scraps. However, if you don’t want to end up with a vinyl fabric pouch then you can zigzag stitch all the scraps to your backing piece and sew up your pouch like you would with a normal piece of fabric.
I would love to hear how you’ve used up your tiny Liberty scraps. Thanks for stopping by and happy “mad” scrap sewing!