Visiting grandma means we get to dive into her boxes of fabric scraps. For 40 years, no fabrics have been wasted in her house. Just last month, she passed on several boxes to a local quilt-making organization, but luckily we found a few more up in her attic.
We looked in the Trash Backwards app for some good fabric scrap reuse ideas for small hands and landed upon a fun tutu tutorial for a little girl. My daughter decided she wanted to make it for her stuffed panda. So, we took our lead from the tutorial at Home Sweet Home and made a mini version for a doll or stuffed animal.
1) First, cut your fabrics into 1/2 inch to 1 inch wide strips. We made ours approximately 6-8 inches long.
2) Find an elastic waistband, about 8-12 inches-worth and sew 2 ends together so you have it in a loop.
3) Fold your strips in half length-wise and place them underneath the waistband with the loop sticking out of the top and thread the ends of the fabric scrap through your loop, tying half of a square knot. This is how you tie on your skirt scrap pieces.
4) Tie your scraps on one after the other and gather them together tightly.
5) We wanted to be sure that the waistband was sewn together well, so grandma reinforced it with some hand-sewing.
You’re Done! Spread around your strips so they even-out your skirt and you can add on more strips of color wherever they’re needed.
Pioneering The Simple Life 
This looks fun and so pretty! – well done your daughter! I was thinking too, that a longer one might be nice for a trim on something like a blanket or cushion. But that panda looks precious 😀
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Thank you for the encouragement. She’ll love it. Her little panda is now the best dressed panda around. Love the idea for adding to a blanket or cushion.
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Aww you are welcome. Its so nice when little ones play using their imagination, instead of technology 🙂
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You see! We get told off for hoarding but when you come back with your own children we perform miracles with all our scraps of material, boxes of buttons and piles of cardboard 😊 My daughter is still using her grandma’s button tin when she knits/sews for her boys and her nephews and niece. I can see a tutu being created here before too long, I am waiting in the wings with my scrap bag for my 2 year old grand-daughter – that’s if she can sit still lomg enough 😂 Well done to your daughter and Grandma 👏🏻
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I don’t consider saving sewing notions or fabric scraps hoarding. Not at all! Those are supplies for all sorts of projects. You should see our scrap bin. And, old clothes are considered for scrapping, too!
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I know, it was more of dig at my daughter and all the tv programmes and life coaches who insist we let go of clutter etc! I was just teasing ☺️
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