Fabric scraps

Sadly enough my broken collar bone still does not allow me to handle big pieces of fabric. So besides a number of eleventh-hour pencil cases and Louka her crow costume, I did not really cut, let alone stitch anything noteworthy the last couple of weeks. The advantage: my workspace is as tidy as can be and ready for our summer break.

This spring-cleaning revealed some fabric scraps that are really worthwhile doing something with –I hardly ever throw anything away- and luckily I can handle small scraps even with an immobilized arm.

I preferably make magnets with them and exceptionally buttons.

Buttons I prefer less as the kids hurt themselves with them and as they tend to get lost when they get removed from the garment for washing.

There are 4 different ways to make nice magnets; but in any case you need a button machine.

Canvas kind of fabrics you can transform into a magnet just by cutting a perfect round and placing in the button maker.

Thinner fabrics you will need to do an extra step as otherwise you risk the fabric to come of the metal part of the magnet or the fabric might tear while making the magnet.

Thinner fabrics you can cover with a lamination sheet -usually delivered with the magnet parts- I never do this as the nice textured effect of the fabric gets lost.

Another solution is to strengthen the fabric at the front side with iron-on-vinyl; resulting in a vinyl version of the initial fabric. A nice but expensive solution if you ask me.

Alternate you can iron fusible interfacing on the back of your fabric scrap, this is not very expensive and I also always have small leftover pieces I consequently can get rid of.

These two last methods guarantee that the fabric does not tear and makes it a lot easier to cut the circles.

This is how these 2 piles of nicely cut rounds were transformed in a whole collection of magnets.

And now… what with the fabric scraps after cutting out the rounds? I will tell you that another time.