Scrapiana (left)

Allow me to introduce myself. My real name is obscure Welsh, so I’ve adopted an obscure English name instead: Scrapiana, which is a late eighteenth century noun for literary scraps or cuttings. This blog can promise to be nothing more than a motley assortment of writings, notes and jottings, so that tag suits me just fine.

My subject matter will also be scraps: mostly how to recycle textile scraps, and the alchemy of making lovely new things from old. I’ve been interested in this for as long as I can remember, probably something to do with the family history of my Pennsylvania grandmother sewing clothes and quilts from feedsacks in the Great Depression. As a child, I used to pore over the joyful, delicately sprigged, ice-cream-coloured fabrics in a quilt she’d made for me. It was crafted from fabrics which my mother could recall fondly from her childhood dresses, and I loved that little pieces of fabric could convey such significant memories. As an adult, I spent several years campaigning on waste, trying to persuade the British to throw fewer things away. I’m not sure it worked; we Brits still bin a worryingly vast (and growing) quantity of textiles.

Over at my Etsy shop you’ll find yet more vintage scraps: rescued cotton reels, buttons, thimbles etc, all  waiting to find a new home. Please consider releasing an item or two into your natural habitat. You are sure to find something beautiful, and your purchase means that I have an excuse to buy more vintageness, which makes me very happy.

Do get in touch if you’d like to commission me to write something. Writing would be my day job if I weren’t up to my eyeballs in cotton reels. Email me at eirlys-AT-scrapiana-DOT-com.

Otherwise, feel free to get in touch about my new and exciting textile upcycling workshops, or anything else you’d like that’s even vaguely connected with vintage haberdashery. Feel free to contact me about commissions, classes, parties or just to say “Hi” at eirlys_AT_scrapiana dot com.I also tweet and flickr so we may cross paths there. Thanks for stopping by!

- Eirlys xx

Nana's feedsack scraps