As some of you may have noticed, I started a 'Remnants' section on the website about a month ago.  Since opening, the pile of remnants at Splendid HQ has been steadily growing - from a few remnants in a box last summer to (more recently) multiple heaps on several tables.  These are mostly the ends of rolls and bolts: once a fabric has less than 7 quarter metres left, I generally mark it as sold out and the remaining fabric becomes a 'remnant'.  I've always been meaning to list these remnants on the website and, last month, I finally set aside some time to start doing just that.  I've now finished that section and there are a grand total of 67 remnants, ranging from 28 cm to 171 cm in length.  I've grouped them by length and by type of fabric - and they're all being sold at a discount, ranging from 15% off for the longer lengths, to 30-40% off for the shorter lengths and lengths with faults.

As I was unfolding, measuring and refolding all of these remnants, I inevitably started to think about what could be made with them.  A lot of the smaller ones, I thought, would be great for contrasting facings, pockets, cuffs, collars, partial linings, etc.  As for actual garments, the obvious candidates - pencil skirts, camisoles and shorts - sprang to mind.  But anything else?  At one point, curiosity got the better of me: I ended up wandering over to the patterns section of Splendid HQ (it wasn't a long wander - about 5 steps!) and started going through our patterns and looking at the fabric requirements.  I was actually surprised by what I found (good surprises and bad surprises!) and it occurred to me that it might be nice to share my findings with you!  Almost every sewer has a pile of remnants at home and you've probably likewise wondered what can be done with them.  It seems a shame to waste them (particularly from an environmental standpoint).  Hopefully this article will give you some ideas regarding the types of garments that can be made with shorter lengths of fabric!

So, let's get started! 

Knit Tops

Tops designed for jersey can be somewhat fabric-hungry.  However, we have two patterns that require as little as 1 to 1.2 m of fabric!

From left to right: Grainline Studio Lark Tee; Liesl + Co. Maritime Knit Top

I was pretty surprised that most of our top patterns for medium-weight knits (mostly sweatshirts) required very little fabric.

Clockwise from the top left-hand corner: Named Sloane; Grainline Studio Linden; Named Lexi; McCall's 6992

Woven Tops

Now, what about top patterns for woven fabrics?  Well, I was a little disappointed not to find a greater range of tops.  A lot of woven top patterns are much more fabric-hungry than I'd anticipated.  Even some camisoles require almost 2 m of fabric!  However, there are some patterns that very economical in their fabric requirements:

Clockwise from the top left-hand corner: Burda 7509; Burda 7079; Named Inari; Burda 7200

Shorts

While trousers require a generous amount of fabric (legs are pretty lengthy!), shorts are incredibly economical on fabric:

Clockwise from the top left-hand corner: Colette Iris; Grainline Studio Maritime; Named Alpi; Burda 6812

Woven Skirts

Our pencil skirt patterns did not disappoint: almost all of them are very sparing in their fabric requirements!  However, I also found a few a-line skirts that were equally as economical.

Let's start with the pencil skirts.  First, there's simple pencil skirts like these two patterns by McCall's and Burda:

From left to right: McCall's 3830; Burda 8155

There's also more casual pencil skirts with a front fly:

From left to right: Grainline Studio Moss; Burda 6769

What about a wrap mini-skirt?

From left to right: Named Nascha; Pauline Alice Safor

Smaller remnants can also be used to make shorter a-line skirts - such as these patterns from McCall's and Pauline Alice:

From left to right: McCalls 3341; Pauline Alice Rosari

Knit Skirts

Got a shorter length of a medium-weight knit?  Why not make a pencil skirt! Incredibly, you need as little as 0.5 m to make Colette's Mabel skirt (admittedly for the smallest size!). 

From left to right: Named Shadi; Colette Mabel

Knit Dresses

Finally, dresses.  I didn't expect to find any dresses that could be made with a shorter length of fabric (like trousers, there's a lot of body to cover with a dress).  While I was largely right, I did find two patterns for knit dresses that have rather sparing fabric requirements - particularly for their sleeveless and shorter-sleeve versions:

From left to right: McCall's 6886; Vogue 8946

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