Craft projects are a brilliant way to spend some family time with the kids and get them away from the TV for a bit. It also teaches them some valuable skills that they can use later in life. When you’re making lots of stuff with the kids, you’ll often be left with lots of old fabric scraps that end up getting stuffed in a drawer, never to be used again.

That doesn’t have to happen; there is no need for any drawer to be sadly stuffed with fabric scraps. There are all sorts of great ways that you can reuse those little scraps so you can always do great craft projects at home without having to go out and buy more fabric. Instead of chucking those odds and ends out, try out some of these great ideas.

Phone Case

You can quickly make a simple phone case with a small piece of leftover fabric in about half an hour. As long as you’ve got kid friendly sewing machines that they can use safely, they should be able to do this one all on their own. The first step is to cut the fabric to size. Measure the width of your phone and double it, then add a few inches on top, so if your phone is 3 inches wide, you want the fabric to be about 8 inches. Use the same formula to measure the length as well. Fold it in half lengthways and sew down one short side and one of the long sides. Then you can slip the phone inside to test the size and cut off any excess length. Then sew up the remaining sides. Add a strip of seamed fabric in a loop so you can attach a clip and you’re done.

Marble Necklaces

These great accessories are so simple to make with any fabric off cuts you’ve got laying around, and a few marbles. Take a long strip of fabric and fold it half. Iron it down and sew along one side. Start on the folded side and gradually move over to the open side, this will create a tie for later. Leave one of the ends open. Once you’re done, tie the first knot and then slide a marble inside. Keep repeating this process until you have around ten marbles in your necklace and then stitch the gaps together. Tie the ends up to make the necklace, and you’ve got yourself a necklace. You can easily make smaller ones to use as bracelets.

Fabric Bookmarks

If your kids are avid readers, there’s no better way to use up those fabric scraps than these simple fabric bookmarks that you can make in five minutes. All you need is a scrap of fabric and a piece of elastic. Just take two strips of fabric, if you want to make it reversible, you can choose two different styles. Put them together and sew along the insides, then turn it the right way up. Put your elastic and sew it in place and it’s ready. The elastic is great because even if you drop the book, your bookmark won’t fall out.

These are just some of the great ways that you can turn those scraps of fabric into something useful and have a bit of fun while you’re doing it.  Do you have any fabulous fabric use up tips to share? I’d love to see how you avoid throwing away your off cuts.

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