Stuffing Without Stuffing

I am a contradiction. I like things organized, everything in it's place, with minimal clutter. I don't generally have things just to have things; each thing should fill a purpose, the more the better. But I also have my grandmother's pack-rat gene. If it might be useful someday, it's really hard to let go of it. I force myself to recycle cardboard boxes instead of keeping every single one we acquire; otherwise we'd never be able to put the car in the garage. Caitlyn's baby things have gone into a box, although I'm not always sure who I might be saving them for. We have a baggie of walnut shells because they might be good for a craft project. And fabric scraps go into a basket: they could be good for mending, or crafting or tiny doll dresses or something I haven't thought of yet.

I found a use for those fabric scraps last week, and I would love to take total credit for the idea, but, honestly, I probably read something about this somewhere in the last two years. I don't know that I actually have original ideas (perhaps another reason why I decided a bachelor's degree was enough - the threat of Original Research), just ideas that get lodged until they knock some other thought loose.

Anyway, I had a pillow that needed stuffing. Sure, I have a bag of Poly-fil, but it probably wasn't going to be enough. Enter the basket of scraps.



Line them up parallel, overlapping and layered. Going more than 3 layers made cutting difficult. Grab the ruler and the rotary blade and cut them into strips roughly 1/4 inch wide. Precision is not important here, but I found using the ruler helpful, although I suppose wildly zig-zagging the rotary cutter could get you to the same place.



A lovely pile of small fabric scraps! Which can be used to stuff things! The pillow's not done yet (I actually didn't have quite enough fabric scraps), but it's close. It's also a lot heavier than any pillow stuffed with Poly-fil, so this may not be the optimum solution for all stuffing needs. But I found a use for those itty-bitty bits I was saving "just in case", and that makes this idea "full of win".