Tip Tuesday! Selvages To The Rescue

"Tip Tuesday!" - Selvages To The Rescue

I love learning new things and then sharing that knowledge with my quilting friends. So, every Tuesday I'll provide some tips, hints, tricks, tutorials, shortcuts, etc. that I've learned over the years and share them here on the blog. 

"Tip Tuesday" will be a collection of information about a wide variety of subjects garnered from a large variety of sources.  I am not an expert by any means and do not take credit for being the great wizard behind all of these hints and tips. I will gladly give due credit whenever possible.

These tips will be archived and accessible to you just by clicking on the "Tip Tuesday" tab above. 

Read, enjoy, and be inspired!

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I know I've done it and bet you have too. You start a project, have everything cut and maybe you've even started sewing; and then you have to set it aside for a while. "A while" can mean a day, a week, or even a decade!

So, when you finally go back to the project, you find that there was a mistake or that you've decided you want to increase the size but you don't have enough fabric. What do you do?

On the various quilting forums to which I belong, I've seen a number of people post pictures and asking if anyone has some of a particular fabric in their stash that they don't want or are willing to sell. Many times the post reads something like this:

     "In search of the following fabric. I need two yards but will take whatever you have. I started working on this project again after an eight year hiatus and decided I have to make the quilt larger because it was supposed to be for a baby, but that baby is now nine years old. I don't know the name of the fabric, the designer, or manufacturer because I cut off the selvage. ARRRGGGGHHHH! Can anyone help me?"

While I may not be able to help you find the fabric, I may be able to help you so that the next time you post something like that, you'll be able to provide more information and hopefully someone will have just what you need. Heck, you may even be able to do an internet search and find what you are looking for before you have to make the "begging post."

Keep the selvages, or at least part of them for all of your in-work projects. 

If you need more fabric, it'll be much easier for you to do a search and much less stressful. Also, if you have extra, you may just be able to help out someone who is in the middle of their search for that illusive fabric.  :-)

And finally, when you complete the project, you can always make one of those cool selvage projects like a bag, quilt, or even a skirt. Check out this one or this one. Cool!

For even more selvage information and inspiration, go to out this Selvage Blog . You won't be sorry that you did.