So, you’ve made your first (or hundredth) bag and now you are looking at your scrap bin wondering what to do with your leftover vinyl, cork, or leather. I’m here today to share a few fun projects that might pique your interest! In this blog post, I'm going to share with you how to make a bangle, a link to my favorite scrap busters, and an SVG for a bow bag charm/keychain.
I can’t write a scrap buster post without talking about the Magnolia Mini wallet and the Dogwood pouch! The Magnolia mini is my favorite wallet pattern and perfect scrap buster. You can buy the Mini by itself here or the Mini with its larger counterpart wallet here.
I love pairing mine with a bangle. For the bangle, you will need a 2”x10.5” scrap of vinyl, 0.5”x2.5” scrap of vinyl, a gate ring (highly suggested) or keychain ring, hot glue, a 10.5” length of 3/8”OD pvc tubing from your local hardware store, and a little piece of something to hot glue on the inside between the two ends. I used ¼” copper tubing, but let’s see here, a small safety pin/sturdy paper clip should work, or any other small plastic kid things/connectors (lego arms maybe? Haha!). But before you hot glue it in, lets sew the 2” strip of vinyl around the 3/8” tubing with your zipper foot. Try to stay as close to the tubing as possible without sewing through it. Once you have that sewn, you can cut off any extra/even up the edges, but leave a ¼” allowance. Now you will add a gate ring or keychain ring and hot glue your little piece in both ends of the tubing and hot glue the little scrap of vinyl to cover the gap.
I am especially swooning over the luggage tag and passport holder in the 10-minute cork projects ( https://sewsweetness.com/products/6-quick-cork-projects ) over at Sew Sweetness! One of my fellow Influencers posted these recently and I just had to sew up some asap! But don’t miss the other freebies while you are there, like the storage bins
( https://sewsweetness.com/products/faithwell-storage-bin ), if you have bigger scraps.
And, if you are still looking for more ideas, might I suggest a tassel, bookmark, keychain or purse charm?!? I am sharing with you an svg/print out to make your own bow charms (scroll to the bottom of the blog post for a printable pdf and svg file!)! I recommend finishing your edges with an acrylic leather paint. I have a set from Amazon with many colors.
The keychain/purse charm options are endless! Feel free to search for your favorite silhouette and cut two mirror images out (with a strip between the two if you would like it to be a keychain) and topstitch wrong sides together. Like for my travel bag, I decided I wanted a tag with my initials on it. I created a cut file with my initials (welded together), two large circles, and a short strap. I started by top stitching my initials to one of the black circles, then top stitched the two circles together with the short strap looped out the top. It’s all scrap anyway so experiment away!
I hope this blog post gave you a few fresh ideas and the courage to dig out your cutting machine or your sharp scissors and try something new! Happy sewing!
-Nikki
TSM Influencer