craftgrrl | Tiny fabric strips & scraps (Reply)

Since I sew all the time I am left with a lot of leftover fabric scraps. I try to use everything up so I am not just creating a lot of waste. Large scraps go into new patchwork, tiny scraps I use for patches or appliques. I also use little bits of fabric that would be to small for anything & cut them up, combining them with all of the thread scraps, and then I use this to stuff the patchwork bears I make.

One thing I can't figure out how to use is long strips that I keep that I cut to be about a little less than 1/2" wide. I started saving these with the idea of crocheting them together for bags. I started a bag & then ran out of strips for a while, but I'm not sure how much I am liking it. I was using all of the colors I had, but I think it would look better using similar colors or running yarn along with the fabric strips....

EDIT~ The strips are very thin... not much wider than a piece of yarn.

I am just unsure about the crocheting because of the fabric fraying along the way. I saw a kit at the craft store where they knitted fabric strips after I gave up on it... but they also used wider strips, maybe 3/4".

So, does anyone have any ideas for these long, thin strips?

Also, I do use some of my small scraps of fabric but they seem to be produced faster then I can use them up! I was thinking maybe I would cover some books in scraps so that it looked like crazy patchwork on the covers & sell them on the site. I wanted to use journals with recycled pages, but couldn't find any good ones to buy. Could I just cover the fabric when I am done with Modge Podge? Maybe I would even make fake stitches with fabric paint, or would that be cheesy?

Any other ideas for using up fabric is also welcome!!