Fabric Leftovers by D'Arcy-Jean Milne

Buy this book. It is not so much that the author is presenting anything new it is just that she brings so many things together that I had not associated with each other previously. Essentilly this book is about taking scraps of fabric and thread and combining them in new and different ways. Those of us who quilt understand the concept of cutting up fabric to be recombined into a new piece of fabric. This book takes it a step further. D'Arcy Jean uses those pieces I have thrown out in the past to create magnificent new objects. I have used her inspiration on coffee cup and soda can cosies, laptop cases and a camera case with, I think, excellent results. Here is an example of a camera case I made the other day from stuff I had already thrown into the garbage after making a laptop case for my son's girlfriend. The picture's a little dark but I think you can see enough of it to distinguish the two Amy Butler fabrics I used for the laptop case. In the spirit of raw edges, the buttonhole was made by satin stititching four lines to make a rectangle and then cutting a slit between them for the button. I did cheat a little by fusing the scraps to batting before I started sewing down the scraps. Wait until you see my own laptop case... but that's for another day.