When I worked at a wallpaper store, periodically they would toss out outdated books and I would save the fabric samples. Eventually, I had enough to make a quilt and then bought enough of the navy fabric to finish it. I was lucky because my mother's quilt group at church quilted this for me for nothing. Nowadays, you can have someone machine quilt it for you. This particular block is called "Pinwheel"
Collect many scraps to do this quilt with a nice balance between light and dark. You can find many instructions online for assembling the quilt into a pinwheel block. After that, you just have to make enough to fit your particular bed and add some plain fabric for borders.
By Elaine from Belle Plaine, IA
This page contains the following solutions.
Visit an upholstery shop or department store and ask if they have any old sample books of curtaining and upholstery materials. These books are sometimes a good size and the fabrics of a good thick quality. They can be used for patchworking quilts, cushions, etc.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
By Marie from Melbourne - Australia
You could make throw pillows or make small pillows and fill with pine needles or potpourri for little sachets. You could also make a quilt or cut them in strips and make a rag wreath.
Make a beautiful tablecloth! Just attach them using no-sew tape and iron together. Then attach pretty ribbon down the seams. If there are some fabrics that are longer than others...it doesn't matter as you're going for a random look anyway. Just lay it out to how you think it looks best. Have fun with it.
The table cloth idea sounds fun. You can make a matching apron too if you have leftovers. And/or curtains. Matching in the fact that they are both patchwork projects. ;)
This may be hard to describe, but take a picture frame that can hold samples/smallish pieces of your tapestries. Either use as is or embroider over the pattern or parts of the pattern (simple or complex (Google embroidery or crazy quilt for ideas/instructions). Cut mat board or cardboard faced with solid fabric to go around the tapestries.
Make purses, large patchwork or small evening bag types! Add embellishments and fun decorating!
Hello,
I have just picked up some free treasures at a yard sale: upholstery samples. They are various sizes; most are about the size of your average sofa pillow. The lady says she has as many as I can use at her decorating store.
They would make GREAT purses. All sizes, some patchwork ones. Placemats. Table runners. Cover boxes and tins with the fabric. School kits (make pouches for the different supplies). Knitting needle cases. Pot holders. Dresser scarves (doilies, mats). Belts. Covered barrettes. Pin cushions. Picture frames. Oh! Can I come over and sew and craft with you?!? --Jayne
You can make tooth pillows. These are small pillows with a pocket for the tooth that has fallen out. They are great for gifts and have sold well for me in the past.
How about eyeglass cases, sewing kits, travel jewelry packs, travel shoe bags. patchwork throws or tote bags.
I am not even sure if this will go through as a feed back, but Jayne had some wonderful ideas. I have been trying to think of more ideas myself for this fabric.
Pull them tight around MDF and frame them as original artwork. Sew together for shalls, cloaks and lap blankets for the colder season. Vertical hanging banners with letters than placed over top for whatever theme the material seems to take, ex. Fall, Dreams, Lullabye you get the picture
I got a lot of FREE of charge at a local furniture store- they discontinue the style so I get a big box of it now & then ! The last time I used it was this past Easter. I had a cardboard bunny decoration so used it as a pattern & hand stiched it to another upholstery swatch & stuffed the bunny side on the top & tied a ribbon bow thru the neck !
I used a cd as a pattern & cut circles from several pieces of the swatches to use as "mug rugs". Some of it is really quite thick so I cut larger size circles to use on the table as hot mats.
I love some of the deep reds that I have gotten so cut some into beautiful hearts.
I made some woven hearts that I have potpouri in that hangs from drawer pulls.
Carefully cut diagonal 1' or 3/4' strips almost to the edge of one heart. Of the 2nd heart cut the same width strips but all the way across and in the opposite direction.
Weave the loose strips into the heart that is still intact but has the strips cut. There might be a few of the pieces that frustrate you because they are small and need pieced back together at the top where the curves are & the "cleavage" of the heart.
Then stitch the pieces together. It might help to stitch as you go. Add a nice cord for a handle.
I covered a box with a swatch once. I used coordinating fabric of the same texture to be able to have enough but it worked!
I lined the inside of a footstool that has a hinged lid to store a few things inside.
Make pot holders of it. Use recycled bed pad for lining. Or recycled thermal underwear tops or leggings, either one.
I happen to work in a furniture store and have saved 4-5 buckets of discontinued swatches so far. The swatches are great for when I need to practice on the sewing machine since I'm just learning. I've also been quilting. For the first quilt I just cut off the edges and peiced them together in squares. Next one I tried to get a little more creative and did a mixture of large squares and small ones and a thick border around it. Since furniture grade swatches are heavier than normal quilting fabric I use the basic blankets from Wal-mart or K-mart for the back, not something very thick. I used the light-weight batting the first time and realized you don't really need to use it so I don't now. My Dad drives a semi-truck over the road all week long and he said it keeps him nice and warm while he's away from home, even when it's cold outside. I read the other posts and think they are all great ideas, I really like the idea of pot holders. Also I'm trying to find info on the rag rugs to see if these can be used for that too! Happy crafting! :) Amy
Last year our church women were given three big boxes of the samples to make things for our bazaar. We put our heads together and made small purse (one of the men collects wood scraps, so he made the handles. We also made handy totes to be mounted on the front of walkers for our nursing home residents. Thanks for the other ideas.
You can make Christmas stockings, pillows, placemats, etc.
They were the perfect size for armchair covers. I folded them lengthwise then ran a seam up the one short side. I then folded it flat to form a triangle at one end and ran a stitch across the triangle part about 3 inches down. Turn it back out and there you have it, a perfect cover to keep the arms of your sofa and chairs nice and clean.
PS- this can also be done with placemats from the dollarstore
Yes, this has been asked before, but I thought I'd ask again and see if anyone has a few new ideas. I picked up a couple of bags of upholstery fabric samples at our local thrift store. They were a steal at $2 and $3 dollars a bag. Now I'd like to get sewing. I've made tote bags, placemats, armchair covers, a bedside caddy, and an armchair caddy. Anyone have any other ideas or websites that might be of interest?
By Toodles
How about purses or coin purses? Or use the scraps to make covers for journals? You could probably Google to find info on how to do these things.
Tea Wallets! Do a Google search and you should find a tutorial. Very cool use of small pieces of fabric. I'm gonna make some for Christmas!
Here's one I found: blog.christyscreations.com/
Stitched Book Marks can be made of scrap easily. Just cut the length and width you need. Make a small beaded tail with a dangle at the end or ribbon. Then, with either the same fabric or a coordinated fabric, stitch the two back to back design side out leaving a space to insert the ribbon and stitch it up.
What crafts can be done with upholstery material samples? Any ideas would be appreciated, as I hate to throw them away.
Trina from Washington
Hi Trina,
We had a Brainstorm about this recently. There are a lot of good ideas:
www.thriftyfun.com/
Susan from ThriftyFun
I have used them in snowman crafts to make fringed scarves. Doesn't matter if the snowmen are large (such as from gourds or even a fence post) or small (from popsicle sticks), they all look great in their scarves.
This is a page about making a drapery sample tote bag. This durable bag made from recycled drapery samples is great for shopping or as a gift.
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
I also have many boxes full of gorgeous fabric and upholstery samples. Any ideas what to do with these other than the obvious, like quilts, pillows and sachets?
I have a question for all your crafters. I went to a wallpaper store yesterday to get a couple of discontinued wallpaper books.
