Inspire July Challenge – Scraps Inspiration Tutorial

The Inspire July Challenge that me and Jessica from The Mad Cutters have organised has had a great response, which is super exciting that everyone is getting inspired and entering the challenge. If you haven’t heard of the challenge check out all the details here!

Saturday the 4th, was the start of week 1 of Inspire July, where I started it off with a scraps challenge. I uploaded my inspiration tutorial to Instagram, which you can see here!

I wanted to choose a theme that would be easy for every sewer to partake in as well as being sustainable and I think fabrics scraps are something every sewer has aren’t they?

I originally came up with my design idea one night in bed when I couldn’t sleep. Whilst it’s annoying you can’t sleep, this seems to be a quite a creative time for the mind for most people, so at least the creativity makes up for the lack of sleep! 😀

My design idea

Mountains have been a regular source of inspiration for me since I made a trip to Snowdonia in Wales, growing up in Norfolk, UK where the land is completely flat, Snowdonia felt pretty magical. So I used some photos I took there to influence my pattern shapes.

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My pattern I wanted to use for this design were the Willow knickers, as they have a non stretch centre panel so I wanted to make the most of my woven scras and this was the perfect pattern to do so!

So, I draw some designs from my inspirational images using the centre front panel shape as my base. I decided to use the hipster version of the Willow Knickers, as I felt a more landscape look would look best.

Pattern Cutting

I decided to choose the first design as I felt it would best show off my scrap pieces and look most like a mountain range, which I wanted to be a predominant feature. I then up-scaled my design and draw this pattern directly onto my centre front pattern piece.

The sewing was fairly easy and straight forward, although I did make a hiccup! Check out part 2 of the tutorial to see what I did wrong and what I learnt from it! 😀

Finished design

I was really pleased the way my final design turned out. It was fairly simple to sew together but I think the effect it has created is really beautiful. Knickers with memories! I also used a scrap piece of viscose jersey for the side and back panels of my knickers. I think the grey really brings out the colours of the scraps.

Other designs that I think would look really great using this technique would be a water/sea design using different shades of blue.

So if you have scraps to use up and time on your hands, get creative and have a go at making your own scrap art! I have loved seeing all your creations so far! You could win a £30 for the shop just by entering! See the challenge details.

Feedspot

If you’re looking for other inspirational sewing blogs, definitely check out Feedspot, where I recently made it on the Top 60 UK Sewing blog list!