Remnant Overalls: Using leftovers to make something new
This year I made the choice to try and only use my current fabric stash; a good part of my stash is a box filled with remnants from past projects. It’s relatively organised and the pieces vary in size, but I do have some weirdly shaped big pieces that I was really having a hard time trying to conceptualise a project out of. They’re all corduroy but they were colours that you wouldn’t usually put together.
I was chatting to my husband about my dilemma and then as I was talking to him it came to me. Does that happen to anyone else? My husband is the sweetest soundboard to bounce ideas off of. I had been wanting to make another jumpsuit and I looked at my corduroy leftovers and thought if I mix the colours right this could work really well. So that’s exactly what I did.
What works really well with jumpsuit patterns is how the pieces are broken up; it just screams “colourblock me!” It’s easier than other patterns because the design has been essentially set up for it. I took out my jumpsuit pattern pieces and laid out my remnants. I first worked out what pieces would work on each fabric in terms of sizing. From there I then drew up a sketch to see the layout of what colours would be where on the finished garment. Once I was happy with it, lots of tetris involved here, I cut it out.
The great thing about colourblocking with remnants is that the hard part is only at the beginning. Trying to figure out what piece should be cut with what colour and if it will fit. But, after that’s done you follow your pattern instructions like normal. There is only one downside, colourblocking can get surprisingly confusing, so be sure to label you pieces accordingly to avoid any mix-ups, especially if you’re doing a jumpsuit!
Well I hope you enjoyed my latest remnant make. I’ve been living in it for about 4 months now and wear it to work all the time. So much so, that I forgot to photograph it to show off. My husband ended up reminding me when I came home from work one day and just asked “have we photographed that yet?” We hadn’t! Totally shows how much I love it.
