Rag Rugs

[PurpleDragon]

Can anyone tell me how to make these? I haven't got the first clue. Thanks :)

[Chickpea]

Oh, now you're asking! There are lots of ways to make rag rugs. You can braid long strips and wind them round each other like this:

.

Or prog short strips through burlap like this:



Or prog long strips through burlap like this:



Or you can knit or crochet long strips:



Or weave strips together:



Wish you'd never asked? Let me know which of these techniques appeals to you, and I'll give you a "how to".

[Shirley]

All of them
Is that greedy?!!

I like the top and the bottom one best

[PurpleDragon]

Oh, wow. I had no idea - I thought it was just one technique!

All I want to do is use up so old clothes that aren't worth anything and make a wee mat to go outside my shower door, and that I can chuck in the washing machine.

[Chickpea]

The braided technique is probably easiest and doesn't require any special equipment. Wash your rags and cut them into long ribbons about 3" wide (thicker for very fine fabric, thinner for e.g. heavy wool). It took me one sentence to say that but it will take you several evenings to do it. Pretty much any fabric will do and you can mix fabrics as well

Working with a length of ribbon that will fit on your ironing board at a time, fold the raw edges of a length of ribbon to the centre and press, then fold in half and press again so you get a neat ribbon 4 layers of fabric wide with the raw edges concealed inside. Keep working along your ribbon, then start on the next one. It takes a while. At this point you will be starting to feel demented.

Roll all your ribbons into balls, keeping the ribbon flat not twisted.

Sew three ribbons together at one short edge the start making a plait. Keep the ribbons flat and keep the plait nice and flat and fairly tight. You will find it easier to fasten the plait to somehting like a doorhandle or dining chair so you have some tension as you work.

You can roll the plait into a neat ball until you have enough and then make the rag rug as the last stage, but I like to start making my rug and then work in shifts - a while sewing the rug, a while making braids. I have no attention span. Also it helps me plan my colour changes.

So to make a circular rug, lay the start of the plait flat on the floor and roll it around itself to make a coil. Using strong thread (I use waxed thread) stitch the edges of the plait securely together. Keep it flat on the floor or you will end up with a rag tortoise, not a rag rug. If you want to make an oval rug lay three feet (or so) of braid on the floor in a straight line and then coil around that.

Keep braiding and stitching, braiding and stitching. Put something good on TV that you don't actually have to keep looking at, or get a book on tape. This whole project is going to take you at least a week of dedicated working every evening, or longer if you do a little now and then. Keep the rug flat on the floor. When you run out of ribbon (or when you get bored and want a colour change) stitch the new ribbon to the end of the old and keep working. When your rug is large enough cut the ends of your three ribons to the same length, fold them over twice by about 1/2 and inch to 1 inch to conceal the raw edge and stitch the end down very securely - this is a likely spot for an unravel so stitch it real good.

And that's how you make a braided rag rug.

[Shirley]

That's ace - it doesn't sound that 'difficult' either. Hmmm but it does mean that I need to use my iron!!! YIKES... forgotten how it works.

when you say fold the raw edges in .. you mean along the length on both sides??

[PurpleDragon]

Gosh, Chickpea - you're a star! Now to find the time ...

[Chickpea]

That's the problem. Rag rugging is in many ways the perfect craft. The basic ingedients are cheap or free, it requires no particular skill, no specialist tools, you can learn how to do it from reading one page of instructions, it produces a useful end product. The only drawback is it takes ages. View it as a Zen thing - you learn patience, and you get a rug as well (eventually).

[PurpleDragon]

I have three small children. Patience I have. Time - nope!

[greenbean]

Jee wizz, I feel dreadful now, I recently went to a local craft fair where one chap was selling rag rugs, I rather liked the look of one, but it was priced at $25 (that's pounds not dollars, don't know how to do a pound sign on this machine), so I didn't buy it, now I know the poor sod has taken a week to make it I would have paid that and a tip! Thanks chickpea for the talk though technique, I do rather fancy making one, but I have an unfortunately poor lack of discipline, for instance I have about 20 hexagons sewn together as a a start on my patchwork quilt, mmm only about 7 years ago.............got bored

[greenbean]

P.S. Wanted to say if purple dragon is looking in, love your greenhouse, it looks victorian, is it?, hard to see detail in your wee picture, but it looks just lovely.

[PurpleDragon]

Hi Greenbean :)

So, you're in Stirling. We moved up to the north east from Kincardine a year ago. I wouldn't have bought the rug either

The greenhouse - that is a standard avatar I picked from the selection pages when you set up your profile. My polytunnel is rather more modern than that, unfortunately. Lovely greenhouse though. I wish I did have it!

[kevin m.]

In the North East of England,these are known as 'Proggy mats' or 'Clippy mats'.
There's some fine examples in your pictures.

P.S. - Look what I've just found from a quick search-
http://www.4ormore.co.uk/projects/ragpic.htm

[Wormella]

it's l;ike you lot are psychic! I've mid way through making a quilt out of old t-shirts and I've plenty of miss shaped bit of rags I was aiming to make into a rug.

I'm going with the burlap approach - I've got one of those nifty tools hanging about and everything!