Using up Scraps

 To keep my costs down it is necessary to try and use up all my scraps .Today was tri-colored apron day. When I first started making aprons, it was a bit of a quandary what to do with the scraps once the aprons were cut out.  It was a sizable piece of fabric that was left over.  A reversible apron requires 2 yards of fabric.  Once a 29" wide apron was cut out of a 42" wide piece of fabric....that was a lot of waste!  I came up with a tri-colored apron to use up the scraps.  Another yard of a third fabric is requited.  That becomes the solid side and a block is cut out of it's scraps and worked into the patchwork side with the coordinating fabrics from another apron.  Pictured is the tri-colored apron I made today from the scraps left over from the spiral and dot fabrics.  There is a bit more labor involved in making this apron since the tri-colored side has to be pieced.  Since an apron is 29" wide, the blocks need to be 14 3/4" wide.  The scraps that are left from the original apron are not that wide, the scraps have to be turned on their sides to get the width needed.  Two 14 3/4" width blocks are cut from the length so obviously scraps from a direction fabric will not work!  Sometimes after the blocks are cut out there isn't large enough left over of one of the fabrics for the pocket.  Since I had made two of the spiral and dot aprons yesterday there were ample scraps left from the spiral fabric for the pocket.  This isn't always the case.  If I am running short I do a patchwork design from the scraps left over from the tri-colored side and sometimes I thrown in other scraps i have on hand that play well with the apron fabrics.  Using up scraps in this way adds another design element and also visual interest to the apron.  Necessity IS the mother of invention!