Book Review: Sewing with Scraps

It’s my pleasure to review Sewing with Scraps – 15 projects to sew a sustainable wardrobe using leftover fabric by Birgitta Helmersson and Sam Grose.

In the interests of disclosure, the book’s publisher asked if I would like a free review copy, and I said yes, as I knew it would be good and thought you would like to hear about it.

You may remember Birgitta’s earlier book, Zero Waste Patterns. Sewing with Scraps shows a different way of doing zero waste.

The sub-title sew a sustainable wardrobe using leftover fabric sums up the book’s premise. Sewing with Scraps guides you through methods to use up the scraps and offcuts you have at home to make whole garments. We all save scraps, don’t we? They’re hard to throw away, but we don’t always know what to do them.

This book shows how to use scraps and remnants to make new fabric, and then cut and sew garments from it. You can make a whole garment without buying any new fabric for it; it’s something-from-nothing. It also shows you how to use scraps creatively for texture, interest and to create unique pieces.

Birgitta and her partner, Sam Grose run a clothing brand which is committed to not throwing anything away and using every scrap, and the projects in this book are based on their scrap-using experience.

Podcast listeners, the Check Your Thread podcast has an interview with the authors. It’s just under an hour long.

The book discusses how to organise your scraps and how to choose fabrics for projects, and the main part of the book is arranged around three scrap-using themes:

Patchwork, with step-by-step processes of putting together patchwork fabric and planning the pieces.

Strips shows many ways of using strips of fabric for texture and decoration.

Collage is very versatile indeed, with methods for using even tiny scraps. The vest on the book’s cover uses a collage technique.

The book comes with three patterns that can be used for the projects in the book, or you can use the scrap methods with any patterns you already have. The book’s patterns are trousers, a t-shirt and a jacket. These have variations to make practically a whole wardrobe to include shorts, vest, and coat. There are also some skirts and accessories which are patternless.

Note that the patterns aren’t zero waste patterns; they are conventional patterns. The three patterns are accessed via a QR code in the book which takes you to a site to download them. They are tiled pdf patterns for A4 and A0 size paper. I would recommend getting them printed out on A0 paper if you can, as there are a lot of A4 sheets (56 for the jacket, 35 for the trousers and 22 for the tee). The printouts contain all the sizes nested together.

The sizes for the patterns fit chest 90.5cm/35.5″ to 150.5cm/59.25″ and seat 89cm/35″ to 150cm/59″. The styles are unisex and the trousers have an elastic waist.

Making a project from the book

Naturally, a review must include a project make!

But first I needed to find some scraps. You may wonder if someone who makes zero waste patterns actually has any scraps, but I do! Some are from pre-zero waste days, and the rest are more like offcuts, where I used stash fabric but had a little left, or bought fabric online and it had to be ordered in large increments.

Luckily, only a few months ago I re-organised my fabrics and tidied up the two bins of scraps – there’s one for prints and another for plains.

From these I pulled out all the cotton drill fabrics which I thought would co-ordinate.

I ummed and aahhhed. The jacket? The trousers? I must be completely honest here: I might have made the jacket but couldn’t face taping 56 pages together for the pattern. So I settled, happily, on the trousers.

But would I look as supercool as this guy?

Or as hip as Anna?

I noticed the trousers in the book were all one colour, with the focus on texture. I thought I could combine the reds – I used to have some red jeans and they went with everything. Taking a look at my red offcuts, there was one big piece and several scrappy bits. The big piece was too short and too narrow for trousers.

I started from the big piece, and then added on the rest from the smaller ones. The patchwork part took a fair amount of time.

The book gives options for patchwork seam finishes, and the trousers in the photos used raw felled seams to give texture, which frays with washing. I do love this look, however the tidy person inside me prevailed, and I sewed the patchwork together with regular topstitched seams (which means you can hardly see them).

The trousers have some very smart details and and high quality finishes. There are side welt pockets at the front, and a welt pocket at the back. The instructions for the welt pockets are very good. I ran out of red fabric by the time I got to cutting the pocket bags, so used hi-vis orange instead.

It would be possible to make these trousers with different pockets, not welts, for a faster easier make. They are called the Comfort Pants and they really are comfortable. I was impressed with the cut and fit, and the pieces went together beautifully.

I made size M to fit my 99cm hips. I’m 5’6″/168cm tall with “regular” length legs.

Sewing with Scraps is available from most major retailers, including ones on this list. If you’re in Australia, Can-Do books has it.

Cheers!