Crafting a Rag Rug - How Recycling Vintage Fabrics Can be Lots of Fun!

In the nineteenth century, rag rugs were veryhandcrafted appearance that is so evocative of
popular with Shaker and Amish communities whoold fashioned country life.
believed in living a simple life and wasting nothing.If you want to try making a rag rug for yourself,
Crafting these rugs was seen as a wonderful waydo choose cotton or wool fabrics as synthetics
of keeping busy, but in a leisurely, enjoyable kindattract dirt more. You can use any old fabric you
of way, and with the added bonus of a beautiful,have to hand, and it's a great way of recycling
and useful, piece of artwork at the end of theworn or outgrown clothing that really is beyond
process.wear. Be sure to wash all your fabrics before you
Because rag rugs were generally seen asbegin to ensure they don't shrink unevenly when
utilitarian, and so got a lot of hard wear, very fewyou need to wash your rug.
remain from the nineteenth century. In someYou will need loosely woven fabric for your
households these rugs were laid upside down, andbacking. If you are keen to recycle, then you can
only turned the right way up to reveal their clean,try to obtain old hessian sacks, but if you can't
bright colours when visitors were expected. Theyget hold of these, then hessian can be bought
were moved from room to room as theynew quite easily. The only equipment you'll need is
became more worn, eventually being relegated toa rug hook or large crochet hook. You will find it's
the kitchen or even the dog's bed before endingeasier to handle your rug if you attach it to a
life on the compost heap!rectangular frame. Don't be too ambitious to start
There were various methods of making rag rugswith - for your first attempt go for a very easy
at that time. Early American settlers simply plaiteddesign and a smallish size of rug so you don't
strips of old cloth and coiled them round, ratherbecome discouraged.
like a giant seagrass table mat, whilst inOnce you've cleaned and hemmed your backing
Scandinavia they were handwoven on looms.fabric, then draw your design directly onto it with
Usually though, old jute feed sacks were used asa wax crayon. The rug is worked the right side
a backing through which strips of fabric wereup from side to side and top to bottom if you
hooked or prodded. Once the feed sack had beenare using a frame, or from the centre outwards if
unpicked and washed, a design would be drawnyou're working without a frame. Hold a strip of
upon it which varied in complexity depending uponfabric beneath the hessian with one hand with one
the skill of the artist. It could be flowers, fruit,end at the place you want to begin. Then push
animals, geometric motifs or perhaps a simpleyour hook down through the hessian and pull the
message or Biblical text. The rags were then tornend of the strip up through the fabric. Make your
up, into short strips for prodded rugs and longernext hold as near to the first as you can and
ones for hooked rugs, sewn into a single long stripbring up enough of your fabric strip to make a
if necessary.loop about 1 cm or 1/2 inch high. Continue until
Rag rugs fell out of fashion in the 1920s and theiryou reach the end of your fabric strip, pulling the
fall was complete with the introduction of fittedend up and trimming it to the same length as
carpets after the Second World War. Today asyour loops. Start your next strip in the same way
we become much more conscious of the need toas the first.
save and recycle, and more aware of the beautyAnd that's it - it's really that easy! Good luck with
of vintage crafts and fabrics, they are gaining inyour first rug, and I'm sure you'll find that reusing
popularity once more. Like the vintage linen apronsvintage fabrics is fun, as well as great for the
from DevonBear Designs, they have that uniqueenvironment.