How to Make a Cotton Shag Rug

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By Amy Rose
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Make your own cotton shag rug

Wondering how to make a cotton shag rug? Smaller cotton shag rugs are great as bathroom mats or area throw rugs. Larger cotton shag rugs can fill a room. This eHow article shows you how to make a cotton shag rug of any size or color using an ancient hand rug making technique. You can even make “green” eco-friendly cotton shag rugs with this method.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Step 1

Decide on the size and design of your cotton shag rug. Know the dimensions, color and how short or long you want the pile to be.
Step 2

Obtain materials to make a “punched rug.” Go to your local or online craft store and purchase materials to make a punched rug. This is different that latched hook or other forms of hand hooked rugs. Most hand rug hooking arts usually call for drawing wool strips through the holes of a burlap or special rug canvas. But of all these types of hand rug hooking, the punched rug method allows you to use cotton yarn so you can create a cotton shag rug, and it’s flexible as to how long the pile will be. You’ll need to buy a rug punch designed for actual rugs vs. the miniature kind meant for wall hangings (it’s like a large needle that yarn feeds into and they’re sometimes called punch needles, shuttle hooks or speed hooks – even though they’re needles, not hooks), a rug frame, rug burlap or canvas, cotton yarn, rug-binding tape, and optional liquid latex rug backing. If you plan to make a very large cotton shag rug, you’ll have to punch several smaller ones and bind them together carpet seaming tape. The Resources below lead to another eHow article that shows just how to do this.
Step 3

Stretch the burlap or rug canvas securely across the frame.
Step 4

Punch the rug. Following the directions that come with your materials, thread your rug punch with cotton yarn and begin punching yarn into the back of the rug canvas, which inserts short pieces of cotton yarn into the front, eventually creating a full cotton shag rug. Do not overstuff or the rug will be bunchy when it’s laid on the floor.
Step 5

Remove from frame and finish. Once the entire rug is punched and plush, remove it from its frame. Miter the corners, then stitch rug-biding tape to the rug’s edges. You may also choose to spread liquid latex rug backing on the rug, letting it dry completely before use.