Rags to Riches

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their incredibly thoughtful and kind words on my last post.  I like to think that I am immune to negativity from cyber strangers, but some days it can prove to be quite challenging.  But now it's time to return to the sewing stuff!

Last month, I decided I would try my hand at making a rag rug.  I recently knit a couple of small rugs for my kitchen and decided that I needed one for my bedroom - but this time I wanted to try something different.  My maternal Grandmother had a braided rug under the dining room table which I believe was made of wool.  Although the colors were not my favorite, I remember being intrigued by the item.  I even made my own version with braided yarn as a small child, though they were more coaster size than rug size.

The first thing I knew that I wanted to avoid was raw edges.  I used a few scraps of muslin to test the best way to go about creating strips.  What I ended up with were three inch torn strips that I folded and ironed to hide those dreaded raw bits.

I rooted around in fabric bureaus, boxes, and bins to find quilting cotton remnants that I thought would work together to create a cohesive color scheme.

Once three of these folded strips of cotton were ready to go, I stitched them together, and started braiding.

Because I wanted a bit of consistency running through the entire rug, I purchased three yards of pink polka dotted cotton.  I was expecting that I would have leftovers, but I ended up using the entire three yards.

Which means that I used up six yards of cotton scraps for the second and third strands of the braid.  It also made me reevaluate some of the tiny scraps of fabric that I have been hoarding - there is a limit to how useful micro remnants can be, and if I save every bit of cotton I will not be able to maneuver around the sewing room at all.

The next, and most time consuming step, was hand stitching the braided cotton into a rug.  I know there are a lot of online versions of rag rugs that use a machine zig zag stitch to attach the coiled braid, but where is the fun in that?!  And to be honest, I am not a huge fan of how that ends up looking.

My finished rug is approximately 36 inches in diameter.  I estimate that I used about 42 yards worth of braided cotton to end up with a fairly small rug, so yes, this is a fabric hog!

But in the end, I cleared out a small portion of my stash and did not add yet another garment to my very full closet(s).  I am by no means finished with garment sewing, but this was a very enjoyable sewing experience that took me a little bit out of my comfort zone.

The final step was to back the rug with felt.  This particular felt contains some rayon and is a little bit lighter weight than I would have liked, but I already had it on hand, so it was another stash buster!  And if the backing deteriorates at some point, I can always replace it - the backing probably took an hour to cut and apply by hand.  The rug, however, took a lot longer than that!

I wasn't sure that this was going to be a totally successful project, but I am thrilled with how it turned out.  And I may have already started another in shades of purple for my living room, this time with a more oblong shape . . .