Making a Rag Rug

The following is an excerpt from Handmade Residence: Easy approaches to Repurpose Old components into New Family Treasures by Amanda Blake Soule (Trumpeter, an imprint of Shambhala Publications , 2009).

Although the rise in popularity of making cloth rugs features ebbed and flowed through the hundreds of years, the tradition has stayed live. Rooted deep in handcrafting for family life, cloth rugs carry the essence therefore the reputation for repurposing as essential also an art. Rag rugs is made in a variety of ways. If you’re happy, you might have the best discovering way to obtain all in a living relative who is able to coach you on the ability. My Great Aunt Maddie ended up being a rag carpet maker, and with the woman moving, my children ended up being kept with various rag rugs that she made-over the last century. Them all had been created from clothes as well as other items for your home that she additionally made.

Once I added among Aunt Maddie’s rugs to my residence, I became empowered generate similar myself and carefully learned the woman rugs to discern the technique she utilized. Making rag rugs features changed into an excellent technique me to increase the life span of some fabrics and clothes my family really loves, keep our home cozy and warm, and hook up to our past.

PATTERN DETAILS

Amount: Intermediate
Time for you to complete: A Season
Finished dimensions: As desired

USE WHAT YOU HAVE ACTUALLY

Different fabrics work well for rag rugs. However, having an uniform depth, it's helpful to use similarly weighted textiles. Standard-weight cotton clothing works fine, also heavy wool, denim, corduroy and chamois. (This cloth carpet is made from midweight cotton clothes — tops, jeans, rags and dish towels.)

MATERIALS

Fabric (discarded clothes of the same textile weight)
Lacing cable