In the old days people used to save fabric scraps to stuff pillows. However, I have gotten used to modern pillows with fiberfill and don't particularly like to lay on lumps. Using finely shredded fabric would solve that problem, but you can't shred fabric in a home paper cutter and they don't make home fabric shredders. The cheapest industrial one I found online was $5,000. There are textile shredding services, but they tend to serve customers bigger than just me.
I live in a cold climate so I have been using these scraps to stuff "draft dodgers" that go at the bottom of exterior doors to stop cold air from coming in. I took the idea from a member who posted about uses for fabric scraps on one of the Facebook pages associated with Zero Waste Saint Paul.
Making a draft dodger is an easy sewing exercise. In it's simplest form, you cut a rectangle of fabric about 10 inches high and the length of your door and frame (generally 35 to 45 inches) long. You fold the rectangle in half, right sides together. Then you stitch a seam on the long edge to make a tube. I leave both the short seams unsewn. You then turn it inside out and stuff.
The scraps need to be small enough to not get into a tangled mess. I have found it easier to stuff from both ends since the tubes tend to be pretty long. I use a rubber band on the end I am not stuffing so the material doesn't fall out. Then I sew up the ends. While I use a sewing machine, it would be easy enough to hand sew one.
This winter I made at least a dozen draft dodgers for a donation to a wonderful organization I serve on the board of, Saint Paul Youth Services.
I made my draft dodgers a little fancier than what I described above because I was using them to teach myself new sewing skills. So mine featured applique, piecework, pintucks and ruffles.
Here are some examples.
