I grew up at home in a family where the hosiery trade and sewing were very important. My mum is a seamstress and worked in many local factories when there was a lot of manufacturing taking place in the Nottingham area. Eventually she took work in at home and our front room became her work room with the bay window housing her industrial overlock machine and elasticator machine with a swivel chair between the two.
I would often help with the work and this included helping lay and cut out the fabrics. Eventually mum started to work for herself and she designed and made ladies knickers - from little silky tanga's to large full briefs in cotton.
Dad always the inventor and handy man would devise ways to make sure the trimmings from the overlocker would travel down a tunnel into a box or bin without making too much mess. He would also double as the mechanic and was able to fix many issues with the machinery.
I remember we had a use for the scraps and trimmings. In the 1980's mum and I designed and made Turtle/Tortoise poufes made from fur fabrics and you guessed it - stuffed with all the scraps. We even managed to use the cardboard inners from the rolls of fabric cut down to make the little sturdy legs - covered of course with the fur. I have seen something similar recently in a craft magazine and that would create another whole blog about the debate of originality and ones own idea's!