How to Rip Rags for Weaving

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Debbie the roboteer, and I'm here with Expert Village today to give you some help doing a frame loom so that you can make rag rugs. It's really fun and this is one of the most fun parts. Now everybody's got stuff they really like wearing or they really like having around the house, but it's just not making it any more. Here's what you do with it so you get to keep using it. You can take it and just do a little cut along the side that is the edge, and give it a rip. This is perfect for if you were ticked off at somebody, or you just have a lot of energy, or the kids have a lot of energy and you want them to burn it up. But you want it to be about half the size of your finger and you want it to be at least long enough to go across the loom. So, you can go back and forth with pieces like this for a long time. And once again, it's just really simple, all I did was take this piece, and along the edge here, I cut it, and I just rip it. If it's too short, you just don't use it. Don't have a cow. And I like to use a bunch of different colors, and I have some that I've already ripped and just a few that I need to rip. And see, once again, I've cut it, just about how I want it. You'll get a little, kind of hairy stuff, but you can clean that up. This is all real forgiving stuff, there's not real big rules here that you have to worry about. So you can see, I just have lots of this stuff and I'm just about ready to go. Once in awhile it won't tear that direction, you might have to cut the other way, or you might have to actually use scissors if you really like the fabric. Certainly with knits you have to scissors, so it's a good way to reuse your t-shirts, if you get over them. As you start learning how to weave better, you can make thinner and thinner pieces because you have more coordination and you really can weave a lot better. But, this is about enough to do a rag rug."