10 Things To Make With Fat Quarters
I have a feeling I’m not alone… in fact I’m fairly confident that this is a mild case compared to what might be stashed away in other people’s homes. They’re just so enticing, and so pretty. Such a huge variety of patterns, prints and colours.
So, if you are like me and have a collection of these little beauties and are wondering what on earth to do with them, I have put together a little list for you after an enjoyable hour researching the interwebs for projects. You’re welcome!
First up, my absolute favourite, bunting! I love this stuff, and even had over 100 meters of the stuff at my wedding thanks to my mum, mother-in-law and best friend. What’s great about it is you can use it to decorate your house according to the season. If you’re going to have your bunting hanging against a wall, you can do each side in a different selection of fabrics. Have bright and colourful florals for the summer then come autumn turn it over to find shades of orange and gold. Here’s a fab tutorial to make your own.
I made this little dino dude for my friend’s baby. If you search there are sooo many ideas of cute and adorable things you can make for babies and kids, so if you or your friends have little ones it’s great for using up those fat quarters. This one is blue with white dots on the other side, I reckon you could make at least 4 of these out of 2 pieces of fabric. This tutorial comes with a printable pattern.
Fabric napkins are a great way of showing off beautiful patterns, and again, you can chose the fabric to go with the meal; valentines, easter, christmas… endless options. I wrote a tutorial of how to make your own here.
I am a huge fan of headscarves, especially these wire ones as they are so comfortable and they stay put! I definitely have plans to make about a million of these. Alternatively, if you love colour have a look at these elasticated headbands.
It’s back to school season, do we have any stationary lovers in the house? I remember every September in secondary school, teachers would hand out text and exercise books and instruct us to cover them in matching wrapping paper. I think this was partly to protect the text books that I’m fairly sure had been in use since the 80s, but also so that we could easily match which books we needed for each lesson. After about a month that paper looked seriously tatty, covering notebooks in fabric would have been a much better idea. How lovely is this one from crazy little projects?
Sticking with the back to school theme, you’re going to need a cute way of transporting all that stationary right? I think this gorgeous little pouch will do the job nicely.
Ok, one more back to school project. I don’t know that having a pretty fabric bag like this would ever have made PE lessons any more bearable for me but I think I’d find a use for it now. Taking inspiration from this photo I think packing up a picnic is a great idea. I hear we still have a little more summer weather on its way…
What good is having all that fabric if you can’t make yourself something pretty to help you use all the other fabric in your stash? If your a fan of using a cutting mat and rotary cutter to cut out all your pattern pieces then these weights are perfect for keeping everything in place.
And finally, I still love these cushions I made with the Cotton Candy collection from Dashwood Studios. Once you start discovering quilting cottons and the various collections that designers create you start to realise just how much effort goes into making them. There are some gorgeous collections out there that really do work well together, and being able to make something that shows them off is a pleasure.
I’m going to have to buy some more fabric to replenish my stock after I make everything on this list. Do you have a favourite project for using fat quarters? I’d love to hear them… once I get back from the quilting shop!