My sister-in-law gave me a lot upholstery scraps and small pieces of material.I was wondering what all you can do with the scraps.I'm making new chair covers for the largest pieces.All different kinds of fabric.Appreciate all the help.

Good question! I, too, have a lot of upholstery fabric because my long deceased MIL had an upholstery shop. I have some full bolts, but it's mostly out-of style. However, I have thought of making some tote bags or cushions from some. If your's is more up to date, make placemats, area rugs to place beside the bed, throw pillows, etc.
I plan to use some of the full bolts which are probably 40+ yrs. old to make sleeping bags for the homeless as seen in the "Ugly Quilt Ministry" http://www.reese.org/sharon/uglyqult.htm
I actually know someone now who works with the homeless, so I'd have a way to get them distributed.

I had been gifted with boxes of upholstery books. Since not of the samples were duplicates, I cut them into the largest squares possible and used them with a lighter weight fabric to make a ragged quilt. This was stunning! One word of caution. Take this to a laundromat to wash unless you have a front loading washing machine. All of the threads that raveled, ended up binding up around the agitator. That was a real mess. My friend David, took it apart and started laughing at me, then asked "what the he** did you wash?"

Upholstery scraps are great for making oversized Floor Pillows for Children and Teenagers. I made over 100 some years ago, using a simple 5 or 6 inch square, simply sewing them together with heavy thread and a heavy duty machine needle. The filler can be foam. They were well received as gifts, and were sold out of a craft and furniture "hippy" store in town, and it turns out that the manager/owner preferred to supply the foam stuffing, which he got at a better price, so I supplied only the pillow skins.

They'd probably be good for bags. Since the fabric is a little more heavyweight the bag would be sturdy.

I was going to say the same thing =D

Me three ... you could make some pretty nice purses and bags with upholstery fabric.


Just because it's years old, don't discount it as being valuable ... a lot of people would be thrilled to get it to reupholster furniture of that period.

make some wheel chair bags for the nursing homes

A friend of mine makes beautiful purses with upholstery fabric. I plan on doing some with scraps that I have leftover from home projects. The upholstery fabric is heavy enough that it does not usually need stabilizer. Some of those old flowered fabrics would be lovely.

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Remember that the Victorian women had something called "Carpet Bags" which wore like iron since they obviously were made from carpets. Think how nice it would be to have a small dog carrier made from carpet pieces.