A brilliant way of using up old t-shirts, leggings, sweatshirts, dresses and more or less any textiles...
| My old maternity clothes & a jumblesale tablecloth... I knew they'd come in useful! | |
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Rag rugs have been with us since the dawn of - well, rags! Remains have been found in ancient Celtic & Viking homes; our ancestors didn't waste an excellent resource like old clothes when there was no double-glazing, or, in fact, no glazing at all...
There are as many ways of making rag rugs as there are rugmakers. In the old days, rugs were nearly always worked on hessian (sacking) or burlap, but are often made on canvas now, as mine was. Felted wool was usually the main or only fabric used, but we have a vast range of different materials available to us, not all of them fabric! (See my rag picture.) You can use just about anything you can cut into strips, as long as you think it will stand the wear & tear a rug will get. I made mine by "hooking", i.e. holding the strip of fabric behind the canvas & pulling a loop through with a latchet hook with the latchet taped back (a large crochet hook will just about do). I drew the basic shape out on a 42" x 21" piece of 4x1" canvas (an end-of-roll bargain) in felt pen, then drew round several differently-shaped leaves from the garden. I used some old maternity dresses that were too far gone to hand down, cut into half-inch strips, and any other autumn coloured scraps I had, and hooked away in the evenings for a couple of weeks - very relaxing! When the design was complete, I turned the raw edges under, painted the back with latex glue, then lined it with an old tablecloth from a jumble sale cut to size & stitched on by hand. It's been our hearth-rug for 5 years now, & has been washed several times - it takes three days to dry! and I'm still hoping for the time to make another...
Prodded rugs are made in a very similar way, but by "prodding" short scraps through the backing from behind with a blunt instrument and shearing the front off to a uniform length (if desired). They tend to feel softer, less knobbly & textural and can look very pretty.
Braided rugs are made from long plaits of material wound into rounds or ovals - very hardwearing & attractive!
Crocheted rugs are made from strips of fabric crocheted into shape - I found it very hard to get them to lie flat, which is where I got the idea for my hats!
Last but not least - improvise! Use a mixture of techniques if that's what works for you. Here's a bathmat made from strips of braid woven together & lightly stitched at the edges. |
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Visit the Rugmaker's Homestead" for more detailed advice & pictures.
Click here to return to the Crafts section, or here to go back to the Rag Picture instructions.