Putting my scraps to good use.

My dad warned me that I was very much in danger of turning in to my grandmother if I wasn't careful.  Not that there is anything wrong with that mind you, grandma was a wonderful woman, but she did have a slight tendency to hoard fabric scraps.  No, not  like the TV show hoarders, but like 3 or 4 boxes of them in her bedroom closet. :)

I've been sewing for a few years now, and have a hard time throwing away large scraps or remnants.  Anything larger than 5 or6" get's saved.  Especially of the nicer materials, where I imagine someday they might get used as trim, ro made into doll clothing.
I had actually managed to accumulate 3 cloth grocery bags full of scraps, going all the way back to my very first sewing project some 10 years ago or more!

So last night I'm looking at these in my sewing area of the closet and thinking that I should probably nip this sort of thing in the bud.  I started to go through them, only saving the really large pieces (1/2 yard or more remnants), and setting aside all the smaller bits.  I hate to throw these in the garbage though, so an idea formed in my mind.

Our ferrets love to dig!  We made them a dig box using bedding a few weeks ago, but they continually pushed the bedding out of the box and all over the floor, making a huge mess.  But if the pushed these fabric scraps out, it wouldn't be a huge mess that required vacuuming, just pick them up and put them back!

So I spend an hour or so sorting through the fabrics, and cutting the small pieces up even smaller so the ferrets would strangle on any long pieces or anything.  My husband got out a large box, we filled it with the now even scrappier scraps, and walla, ferret playground!

They love it, and it is better than just tossing them into the trash.  Only thing is, they tend to want to sneak some of the shinier, sparklier scraps out and stash them in corners, lol.