I also have a stash of metal zippers that I have been planning projects around. I like the look, but yeah, sewing over the teeth is not good for the machine!
I find using the bottom of the zipper and cutting off the top excess allows me to sort of avoid sewing over the bigger part and just wriggling through the top halves…it usually means more of an open placket for the zipper than most patterns call for.
Like this:
Yep, stitch each side then over sew the end a few times. Any kind of thread works, just make sure the zipper can’t run over it and snag.
I know a grandma-of-a-kid-from-my preschool and she does this for a living. I’ll see if I can link the article about her.
Sorry for all the ads in it - there are 7 photos in the gallery.
This economy quilt thing is wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing this!
What a fab old book! I love the way it harks back to the lovely needlework of days gone by, but we’re all too busy and practical nowadays … 
some things never change!
I really do love looking at all the projects everyone is doing, even if I don’t manage to comment on them all!
OMG that is BRILLIANT!!! That is so dang smart. @AIMR (I could tag half a dozen ppl here but you my scrappy soul sista) , check this out!
Imma start doing that immediately. I ~just~ decided against a project I had on the list for using up some littler scraps so they are pre-snipped and available for such a thing. And goodness knows I’ve got enough fabrics.
Dang, a little embroidery on the squares and it would be like an easy Teesha Moore style quilt! What an epic project.
I thought of you and your bins of cut up fleece … I am sure bins of cut up fabric would make this a much lighter blanket as well…and if kids can make the little fabric bags, it should be an easy project…yeah…a long term one but just think of a box of little stuffed fabric bags put together into a blanket!!! YEP…a great way to use up large chunks of stash and scraps!!
Hey, hey hey…I put the names of everyone who contributed a completed project in January and drew out a name for a little prize…the winner, is @Trillian!!!
Thank you for posting all of your pouches and tutorial links…and of course, the little doll dresses…
Keep on using up those scraps!
Congrats @Trillian!
Here’s another Farmer’s Wife 1930s block. From sewing scraps, not from quilting cotton. The orange is actually linen. But if those ladies back then could make them from feedsacks then my linen will do. It’s cloudy outside so the picture doesn’t do the fabric justice.
I agree! My great grandmother used all sorts of mixed fabrics in her quilts…even old sweaters and denim…the quilts were sort of a mix of everything fabric that was on the farm.
love the linen…it is wonderful that you are really taking on your project with such an adventurous 1930’s spirit!
Yay Trillian! 
All you quilters with your scraps blow my mind. I can’t do precision. I’m more of a haphazard scrapper lol.
Also…I enjoyed reading about the economy quilt. What a different world. Still a great idea!
I’m terrible with precision too, but these blocks have turned out well because they are paper pieced. It’s so much easier.
I have way more sewing scraps than quilting scraps. Quilting fabrics have nice small prints and can be used for lots of things. Sewing scraps are harder to get rid of.
Trillian’s Prize!!
How cool is this gift card background!?
I have three boxes set aside to make three (4 really) quilts. One is a finished quilt top I got from STS which will have a fleece backing and bias tape as binding and will turn into two kiddie quilts. Definitely. One is a bunch of striped men’s shirts (white and blue mostly, maybe with green), that’s a maybe. And one has shirts and blouses with flowers that my mom used to wear, and I’ve been thinking of adding some of her left over scraps and precut silk squares (I still have that quilt too, used to be silk blouses and shirts she’d buy on flea markets just for making this). I really want to make a quilt from that. But I’ve never done any quilting so far except a maybe mug rug. Very intimidating.
@anna.wahnsinn kafe fasset has a fabulous striped shirt quilt. I did make a version of it. It’s not for the faint hearted, but you could make some squares from the shirts and use plain fabric between the ‘boxes’
This is the one I did https://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=439418.0
holy cow…that looks like such a challenge…but it is quite mesmerizing as well and appeals to my sense of asymmetrical or wonky things…loved the one you did even more!
That looks really lovely! and yay for making use of what you have!
