I am a messy sewist, a fact which I mean to rectify. Leaving little piles of scraps on the floor after cutting a project, I’d push them off to the side or under the coffee table, to wait for re-use or rubbish.

In the spirit of change, after cutting out all the pieces for a long-sleeved shirt, I gathered my pile of scraps and put them haughtily in the kitchen trash.

The fabric was a flannel remnant and the scraps remaining were few – there was no point saving them.

I set to constructing the shirt over the next 2 week nights.

Night 3 rolls around and all I have left to do is attach the sleeve cuffs. Gleefully applying interfacing to the cuffs, I’m increasingly excited to have a flannel shirt of my own. 1 cuff piece…2 cuff pieces…..

wait…

where’s the-

SHIT.

I only cut 1 set of cuffs. And my irreplaceable scraps were in the kitchen trash- UNDER kitchen trash.

For a few moments, I sat horrified. There was no more fabric, there was no saving this. I had a shirt with only 1 sleeve cuff.

I rush to the trash can, swallowing my pride. Open the wooden trash cabinet and I can see the scraps. They’re somehow, luckily, magically, not filthy.

After staring at them for a long moment, I snatched them from the trash like a sneaking raccoon, offering them up before my iron.

I crank the heat and steam settings and cut the cuffs out of the scraps, trying not to touch them too much. There’s barely enough left, the cuffs crookedly cut.

• 

• 

The steam rushes from my iron, hissing on full blast. I steam them over and over, then one last time to fuse the interfacing.

Cautiously I sniff the cuffs. They don’t smell; they’re not even dirty.

Success! I finish the shirt and give it a little extra washing before letting it live in the closet.

It’s one of my coziest shirts. 2 Winters of wear and going strong. I think of it as my Garbage Shirt.

I don’t pitch my scraps until a project is done. Instead, I neatly fold them up and keep them in my sewing case until I’m finished.

It’s a Hannah Montana compromise, best of both worlds. The scraps are off the floor but not in the trash.

And I don’t have to resort to garbage rescues.

Thanks for reading!

2020 Edit: I no longer throw any scraps away, because I now know how bad they are for the environment! I save them for pillows, etc.