Fabric Yarn

I quilt a lot. This means that I have a lot of scraps of fabric. I have been trying to make my quilting zero waste for at least 7 or 8 years now so I have had to come up with creative uses for my leftovers.

Most times, I do not want to use the salvage edge of the fabric when I make my quilts. This part of the fabric shrinks funny when it is washed. There is usually one edge of the printed fabric where the fabric is printed with registration marks instead of the pattern on the rest of the fabric. When I am evening up the edge of the piece of fabric to that I can begin cutting my pieces, I usually have to trim off the end. When I am done cutting out the pieces for my quilt, I sometimes have very little left. Whatever the reason, I always have a pile of long narrow strips.

IDEA: braided yarn for baskets, placemats, rugs, tote bags, ....

• fabric scraps--or other fabric you don't want to keep around anymore
• rotary cutter or scissors--if the fabric is not already in strips

These strips can be any width that you choose. Mine are about a half inch wide. (Any scrap wider than an inch and a half and I put it in a different scrap pile for different projects). The 'yarn' that I produce is roughly the thickness of chunky weight yarn. If you use 3/4 or 1 inch strips, you will get a heavier yarn.

A rotary cutter and a slotted ruler makes cutting very quick and uniform in width but scissors work too. I have scissor cut some strips and there is no noticeable difference when using these slightly non-perfect strips once they are braided. Be sure to use very sharp scissors or you will end up working very hard and suffer some terrible blisters on your cutting hand--I speak from experience here.

If you are scissor cutting--use sharp long scissors so that you can cut quickly and without too much effort. Fold the fabric so that you can cut 2 or 4 layers of the fabric at once. (Cuts down on the cutting time) Mark the fabric with a marker if you have trouble cutting straight.

It will work best if all your strips are roughly the same width. Precision is NOT required.

If I have long strips, I usually skip this and go straight to braiding. If you have a pile of short strips, this may be something you would like to do.

Lay 2 strips end to end. Make sure that the last inch or so of each strip overlaps.

Use a needle and thread to make a few (3-ish) tack stitches. This means just running the needle through the 2 layers of fabric a few times in the same place. Cut the tail of thread. Tie another knot in the end of your thread and you are ready to tack the next 2 strips together.

This method does not require a needle and thread. It does however require a small pair of sharp scissors.

Lay the ends of 2 strips on top of each other. Fold about a half inch down from the end. Clip the fold--be sure that you cut both fabrics but only a little bit. You want a hole in each end--not 2 new ends for each strip.

With the 2 strips on top of each other, bring the opposite end of the bottom strip over the top and push it through the hole you just made. Pull the whole strip through the hole. Tug gently--no need to tear the end of the strips.

I usually do not make a strip that is more than a yard or yard and a half long. If the strips are too long, they will get tangled in the braiding step.

Once you have a nice pile of long strips, you are ready to begin braiding.

Find a nice comfortable place to work. I started out on a chair but quickly found that standing worked better for me. Turn the TV on or put your earbuds in. (I listen to audio books)

Select 3 strips that are different lengths--you will see why later.

Take these first 3 strips lay them along side each other with the ends lines up. Make a simple overhand knot to keep the ends together. I safety pinned this to the knee part of my jeans. Braid. By the time I got to the end of these first 3 strips, it was safety pinned to my sock and I was standing up.

Once you have a few yards done, you may have the end thrown over your shoulder and be holding it taught by holding the loose end under your armpit. This lets me keep tension on the part I am working in front of me. I stand when I braid so that I can keep the long strips dangling and they tangle less.

Eventually one of the strips will run out and you will need to add another strip. You may be wondering why I don't just make the strips super long to begin with--they will tangle. Even if you ball them up really nicely. They will tangle up with each other. It is not fun to stop and untangle them every few minutes. I have one rather large such ball that I made before I really thought this through and one such ball works but 2 or 3 would be a nightmare to deal with. Trust me.

Adding a new strip while you are braiding is much easier than dealing with the tangled mess.

You can use one of the previous methods and they will work, but for me, they are a bit to much work. While I am braiding, I do not want to have to keep grabbing a needle and the clip-and-pull-through-the-hole method works better if the thing that you are pulling through the hole is a single strip of fabric. I hate when the new strip gets caught on one of the previous joins while you are pulling through the hole.

Here is what I do:

Braid until there is only an inch and a half left on one of the strips. Lay the next strip over this end. Continue braiding but make sure that you catch both tails in your braid. When the one completely runs out, just braid with the new one. This may be tricky the first few times, but trust me, if you do it enough times, it does get pretty easy.

I know that it may seem like this will not hold but try it. Braid a few more inches and tug on the join, you will see that it is just as strong as the rest of the piece.

It is much easier to add to only one strand at a time. This is why I recommended starting out with 3 different length strips at the beginning of the braid.

When are you done? When you run out of strips. I am not there yet. I am trying to use up a huge stash of fabric that I inherited from my aunt. I have lots of request for quilts so I am always cutting more fabric and generating more strips. I have been working on this ball for a few weeks. I work on it when I have spare time. You do not have to worry about it un-braiding while you are not working on it. It seems to hold itself together pretty well. If yours gives you trouble, try a chip clip on the end.

What do you do with it? I plan to make a few crochet baskets from mine this winter. I love rag rugs and this would crochet quickly into a rug or could be knit into a very thick (warm, heavy??) blanket.