I have bags of strips from old projects that I think I’ll use for scrap log cabin blocks, and sacks with batting pieces I’m convinced I can use for hot pads, and bins full of 2-1/2″ squares I can’t bear to toss. I even have a jar with rolled up selvages.

Then I found that my coworker Mary also likes selvage edges, so I used some to upcycle an old canvas tote for her (which has since become Mary’s young daughter’s favorite bag for carrying her favorite things on family camping trips).

I dug into my jar and ironed a bunch of selvage strips on to a rectangle of Shape-Flex to quickly stabilize them.  I then faced the rectangle to a piece of muslin, stitched all around, leaving a small opening for turning inside out, then “scribble” quilted around through the layers to flatten it out.

I stitched that rectangle, on two sides and bottom, to the front of a canvas bag to cover up an ugly faded out logo, and then stitched a twin-needle line down the center, to make a double pocket.

 A quick and easy way to upcycle both the bag and the selvages! Now if I can only figure out how to reuse all these leftover bobbins of threads from my longarm Nolting…actually, I admit I now use those bobbins on the top thread holder on my sewing machine for piecing. Reduce, reuse, recycle…isn’t it fun?