How to Make Rag Rugs

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Variety of non-stretchy materials such as cottons
Run twining loom
Basic sewing kit
Sewing machine
Scissors
Patience
Few pairs of blue jean strips that are cut into 1" in width the length of the pant leg.
Strip cutter with a 1" blade attachment
Crochet hook

Step 1

To make a twined rug, I like to think about colors that I want to use for the project first before I begin. In my example pictured I used a variety shades of green and some gold tones. But with the way that I work it is whatever is on sale at the thrift store on Wednesday that is what I usually make my rug out of. You might want to try blues or reds depending on where you plan to place the rug. If you have a large amount of clothes already that I would suggest to sort them into color families than make a decision on what you have the most of before your start in making your rug. Once a good selection of your fabric has been taken apart and cut into 1" strips (using your strip cutter or a circular blade cutter) you are ready to prepare your loom for twining. One thing I want to say before we start to make the rug, is about patterns, it is wise on your first rug not to concern yourself with some sort of pattern. It makes things too complicated. To take the first steps try making a simple stripped pattern. Once you have that skill mastered, you can try for other patterns in the future.
Step 2

Sewing strips together

To prepare the blue jean strips you need to sew them together end-to-end on the sewing machine to make one long strip that can be wound into a ball for easy storage. One important reminder is to always back stitch your sewn stitches on your sewing machine so it doesn't become unraveled once there is tension on the strips. In the example to sew these ends together, you need to refer to the diagram to see how to sew the ends together. Once they are sewn together you need to trim the excess off the strip or you will have too much bulk in your twined rug. Once you have all the ends sewn together and trimmed you need to start to prepare the loom for twining.
Step 3

Even tension

When you are putting on the blue jean "warp" (strips sewn together) to the loom, be sure to keep an even tension as you load all across the pegs so that you do not have any sections too loose. This is important because it makes for an easier time of twining the fabric around each warp strip (or what we call in the business a "pick") on the loom. Each pick needs to have even tension so that when you put your finger under the pick it does not jump off the peg at the top or the bottom. Even tension is not easy to learn at first but the more that you weave you will learn how important even tension is when you dress the loom.
Step 4

Twining

In the diagram, each "warp" (blue jean strip lined vertical next to each other) strip needs to have a "weft" fabric strip surrounding the blue jean one in the front and back. Changing each piece of fabric for every warp section to produce a twist between each warp line.
Step 5

To begin the twining process, you need to start at one side of the loom on the first pick. Be sure not to start on the steel rod that is on the side of the loom because it will be impossible to weave that end piece back into the rug once the rug is woven and you never want to cut the piece off the rug because it could cause a mess to the whole woven structure.
Step 6

How to turn

Continue to twine all the way across the loom until you reach the end of the last warp strip. Now when you reach the end of the loom, you need to weave in the strips to the metal rod for support for the side of the rug (salvage.) Please see the diagram for more explanation of how to do this. Once you have included the metal rod you can begin twining back the other direction to the other end of the loom.
Step 7

Keep it tight

Once you have mastered including the rod for support, you are now on your way to filling up your loom with many strips of fabric. Please remember each time that you do a row pack the twin compactly to the previous twined row so no blue jean strip will show threw.
Step 8

Once you have twined the loom completely and everything is packed in tightly, it is time to take the rug off the loom. Gently take all the top loops off the pegs (don't worry it won't unravel) on each side and then take the metal rods off the sides of the rug and lay the rug off to the side of the loom so it can relax and go to it's relaxed state. I let it sit for at least a good 15 minutes so that you can see if any of your areas are tighter or looser than others so your salvage isn't square. Be patient with yourself because perfection doesn't come in the making of just one rug. You need many of them to get the feel of tension when you twine. Enjoy!

Comments

bossypants said

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on 6/25/2009 This is a clever way to use old clothes and make something useful and desirable! I would love to try this, and your instructions make it doable! Thanks!

veryirie said

on 6/20/2009 Wonderfully done; very creative. Thanks for the instructions and helpful pics.

ScarlettOHairy said

on 6/12/2009 Great instructions for making a rag rug. I've marked this in my Favs.

soanyway said

on 5/31/2009 I have always wanted to do this! I wish I could look at the pictures bigger! Going into my fav's for further reading! Thanks I have recomn'd you!