As a fashion design student, I have accumulated an endless amount of fabric remains. It has overtaken my locker at school, my at-home studio, and the back seat of my car. I am drowning in a sea of polyester, rayon, taffeta, and more! I don’t want these fabrics to go to waste, and I, more importantly, don’t want them to end up in a landfill. I had to come up with a solution. Then it hit me! Why not make new fabric out of the old?

Although this was a great idea, the execution was not so great. The technique was all new to me, and my google searches for “fabric scrap fabric” were coming up empty. Which was not surprising. I decided to start with color because that would play a vital role in how the fabric ultimately looked. I laid out all my scrap fabrics as if it was a paint palette and began the shredding process. A sprinkle of pink, a handful of orange, and the next thing I know, I have filled an entire trash bag full of cut-up scraps. Through this process, I unknowingly inhaled fabric particles that were released into the air. And I’m not being dramatic when I say, I was sneezing all the colors of the rainbow. 

Now that I had more than three pounds of shredded fabric and a sinus infection, it was time to figure out what to do with it. One thing I forgot to mention was that this project was for my knitwear class, meaning the fabric had to stretch—yet another challenge to face. I felt like a corset would be best suited for this project. That way, it could have a limited stretch, given that it would have a  lace-up closure. Because a corset has panels, I could encase the scraps in each one, kind of like a fabric scrap sandwich. I used a sheer stretch mesh and surged the bottom and sides, leaving the top open. That way, I could toss the scraps in and seal the top like a ziplock bag. I carefully spread the scraps, so they reached every corner of the stretch mesh baggy. I then began to stitch sporadically to seal the scraps in place. Once the panels were finished, I went about constructing the corset like I normally would. And just like that, you have a scrap fabric corset! I ended up turning it into a dress and this is the end result! A fun and sustainable projects that I would 10/10 do again!