Pleasant Home: 1.5" SCRAPPY STASH SOLUTION: SAVE, SORT & SEW!

I sew with my 1½" fabric scraps a lot. It seems they add up the quickest.

A courthouse steps red, white, and blue scrappy quilt, using 1.5" scraps

Keeping all your scraps organized in a way that makes them very usable can be challenging.

Today I'm sharing my newer system for saving and storing my 1.5" scraps!

I posted a reel on Instagram today that shows a quick glimpse into my process, and I'm going a little more in-depth here.

I hope I may inspire you to save your 1.5" scraps and find a way that works for you to store and sew with them!

A little recap:

When I'm sewing, I throw all the leftovers from cutting and trimming into my 1.5 lb. galvanized bucket on my cutting table.

When the bucket is full or if I'm just needing something mindless to do. I dump the bucket, do a little pressing, and start cutting the scraps into what I call usable pieces. Here are all the scraps that were in the bucket, cut and ready to organize.

And here is the new home for my 1.5" scraps!

I've been experimenting and using this system for a couple of months now, and I'm very happy with it!

The containers came from our Dollar Tree. Width: 8.86" Height 3.03" Length 13.4"

I'm not sure if they're still available. But I found some containers on Amazon that would do the trick. I've added them to my Amazon storefront (link at the end of this post).

*** Just look closely for the measurements of the containers, so they will fit where you need them to go.

I used my label maker to make labels for each size of 1.5" scrap I save: 1.5", 2.5", 3.5", 4.5", 5.5", & 6.5"

I traced the bottom of the container onto some thin cardboard, cut the cardboard just a smidge smaller, and covered them with scrap pieces of felt. Sort of like a mini design board!

Tip: Only cover the top of the boards. Don't wrap the felt around to the back. Otherwise, when you stack the mini design boards, the fabric sitting underneath will stick to the bottom.

I also cut a little notch on the side of each cardboard piece, so I could easily grab each little mini design board with my fingers to lift out of the container.

Here is one of the containers, all filled with pretty scraps ready to be sewn with!

See the little notch. Perfect for lifting the boards out.

It does take some time to save, cut, and store all these little scraps. But for me, it's totally worth it! My scrappy quilts are almost always my faves. And it's such a great feeling of accomplishment to use what I have and use up almost every little bit.

When I'm ready to sew one of my scrappy quilts, I just grab one of my large design boards, and lay out the colors and sizes I'm ready to sew with. I either use them as leaders and enders or chain stitch away!

Here's a full view of the scrappy quilt I shared on IG this week. It's made using the courthouse steps block and 1.5" scraps! It's probably my favorite scrappy quilt. Well ... maybe ... It's hard to choose a favorite!