Braided Jeans Rug: Sewing Coils

Video Transcript

"Now I am going to show you how to sew together your braided rug. You want to thread your needle with a nice strong thread; either carpet thread or quilting thread. And you will start with the, at the bend end. I am going to make a long, a oblong rug. So I folded about 12 inches down here. And I am going to begin at the fold. So coming up from the bottom. There will be a bottom and a top to this rug. And what you will do is any time you come to any kind a like a something hanging out or a tag or something, then you stick it in on the bottom. So that will hide all, put all the messy stuff on the bottom for the things that you don't want to see. So we are going to be going up through one side of the braid and then down through the other side. Now, sometimes the denim fabric is very tough, very hard to get the needle through. And so it's helpful to have something like a Popsicle stick or something that you can push the needle down. To give you a little hand pushing it in. And you can also use it on the top, if you have, if you going through a difficult thick spot, you can use that to push it in. Now this sewing takes quite a while. I am making stitches that are maybe 1/2 inch apart. I am coming up a 1/2 inch from where I was over here. And going down exactly across from where I came up and pull through. This can take quite a bit of time. You do want to stop occasionally and really pull that thread tight so you have a nice join. You don't have any holes. You can also use different kinds of threads. Different colors and that will give you a different look. A little more decorative. Try some reds or yellows or that color, that kind of gold color that they alway sew jeans with, decorative jeans. Okay. Now I am down to the end and before I come around the corner, I am just going to trim off a little bit of this extra stuff. But I don't want to cut off where I sewed the three pieces together. So when you come around, you're going to overlap the end or the beginning of our our rug and you are going to bring the needle up through that beginning pieces and the new coil. And then continue around like this. In, in to the front and then coming up through the back and continue all the way around like this. Now, one thing you might notice is that I am holding, I'm working on the top piece here. So I am holding the rug in my, you know in front of me like this, and I am working with the piece coming off the braid, the braid coming off like this. As the rug gets bigger, you will find that this is the best way to hold it to work on. So as you work on it, you will rotate around and always the braid will be on the top. And you will go in and out. It's the easiest position to hold the rug as you are working on it. Now sometimes you'll find that you'll push the needle through and the jeans is so thick that you can't get the needle out. So in that case, it's nice to have a plier like this and you can use it to pull the needle through. And just continue sewing your rug together and stopping occasionally to pull the threads nice and tight."