Crafters Corner - 5 Things to Make with Tartan Fabric Scraps

We are often asked for bunting but really the time and cost of making it means the price we have to charge you is ridiculous so we think you are much better off making it yourselves. You can stitch every single triangle or cheat using some pinking scissors and have nice zig-zag edges. The best bunting we ever saw was made by the Bru Cru Scout Group when they attended the world Scout Jamboree in Sweden. You have never seen so much tartan!

I love this one as it is so personal on several levels. Firstly obviously with the letters of a special name or place, or numbers marking an important date or event, and secondly because you can go doubly personal and use a tartan that is relevant to that person or that day. Remember as well as the family or clan tartans there are also regional and district tartans such as Glasgow, Aberdeen and Isle of Skye.

I had no idea what a rag rug was until my mum embarked on one as her winter project. They are so cool and don't require too much skill, just lots of strips of fabric and plenty of time to put it together. You can either be very co-ordinated and make the whole rag rug in one tartan as unlike plain fabrics the pattern in the tartan will give you plenty of different colours to make it interesting. Or alternatively you can use up all those random scraps you have and because there are lots of common shades across the different tartans it will never look too messy. YouTube has lots of helpful videos if you want to learn.

A really nice, useful gift is this simple yet highly effective stand for your tablet or phone. Perfect for reading recipes or watching videos. Stitch together your scraps and fill them up with dried lentils or rice et voila a very clever device is made. My son has been asking to purchase an iPad case with a stand for ages so I am just off home with some tartan remnants to suggest he makes his own!

Just before Christmas we wrote a series of blogs on tartan giftwrapping and this one used up scraps of fabric beautifully. We had so much fun learning new techniques and wrapping up our gifts. The fabric fringes so nicely we then started using it to tie up napkins, make little placemats and all sorts so once you start with this idea you may never stop.