As a home sewer, I frequently threw away the remnants. Then I became a quilter and saved the dressmaking left-overs, throwing away only those pieces that I thought were too small to do anything with. Then I became a fiber artist, and now my closets are doomed. There is NO SCRAP TOO SMALL for a fiber artist! You can ALWAYS find an art quilt or soft sculture or something that needs just that extra scrap.

As a beautiful case in point, my crafty friend Liz supplies photos of her efficient use of fabric selveges. To a dressmaker, the selveges are necessary evils; the thicker fabric at the edge of the bolt is useful during manufacturing but doesn’t look the same or shrink at the same rate at the main fabric, so must be removed. Liz knotted selvege lengths from various fabrics and knitted it into a throw rug. The first picture shows the pile of scraps, the second is the ball (a little bigger than a basket ball) made from the joined ends, the third is the multi-colored throw rug. The colors blend together beautifully in the finished product.