Its finished - rug number two

This rug did not take long to make although I have not had much free time of late to make the rug. It took about 3 pair of jeans.

The rug seemed to be growing slowly at this stage but it was gradually growing . One thing to remember when you are sewing this run together is not to pull the plait to tight otherwise the rug will not lay flat when completed.
I decided to sewing it together as I was going along instead of plaiting very long strips and then doing lots of sewing.

At this stage you need to add the next strips. It is better if you do not add all three at the same stage as this makes the area very bulky.  I chose to add my next strip by "wrapping" both ends together and then plaiting them but you could sew them together if you wished.

I have just layed one piece of fabric on top of another, rolled them together and continued to plait.

This is the finished rug at my kitchen door. My last two layers here in light denim which appeared to frame the rug. To finish off the end of the rug I weaved each peace of plait separately down the outside and sewed them in.

Now to see how it wears. Why not have a bash at making one? nothing ventured nothing gained.

A different rug this time.

I need a door mat so thought of trying a new project so here goes.

This rug I have chosen to use denim as this is quite hard waring and I have some of my daughters old jeans that I can use for the project.

I am cutting the jeans up into long strips about and inch wide and I am platting them together.

Now I have a length of "rope" type length of fabric.

For this rug you start in the middle. I want an oblong rug so have taken my platted fabric and bent it in half. With a needle and thread I have then stated sewing the "rope" together. Once I have reached the end on my first row I have the gone around the corner and continued along the next side. Remember to keep your work flat.

 


This is now starting to take shape. You do not have to be to precise with your strips although I think I would have made them a bit wider next time to make the rug a bit thicker.

Its Finished

This is the finished article and it doesn't "litter" at all, I hope they like it I will pop it over to them this week.

As you can see from the back it is no longer round as it started out but I don't think that will matter. Now I need to decide what to do next.

Almost finished

As you can see this is now taking shape. Every other set of rows is white and I have used pink/maroon for some rows and lilac for some rows. As the rug is taking shape you cannot see that the snips have been knotted.

 This is the back of the rug and gives a clearer picture of the amount of rows I have chosen to do in each colour. Nearer the centre of the rug you can see some holes in the hessian as I made a row and then I took it out as I changed my mind. As I fill in this area the holes will all close as the rug is finished so no harm done.  I decided to stop going around in a circle and fill the centre using white and maroon snips randomly.

I have decided to go across the centre as I thought this would help to disperse the bulk of fabric that has "bagged" at the centre.

My Rug is taking shape

With these rugs you can  choose your own pattern and how thick you want the pile to be so you decide where to put the rag. You put the tool into the hessian, clip the rag and pull through then either knot your rag or leave it and go onto the next one.

My rug is taking shape or rather changing shape! Although it started out round it has changed shape slightly which has never happened before. I presume it is because I am going around in a circle and as I am going around it is distorting the shape. The hessian is also "bagging" towards the centre so I am not sure how this will affect the finished article. As I am getting nearer the centre it is quicker to peg around the rug which is nice. I have decided on my pattern as I have  gone along and have chosen to use white after every group of coloured rows.

Where I start

Unlike the first rugs I made I am trying to make this rug with only knitted fabrics so that there is no litter as this rug is for a cute little girl. I am also knotting these snips which I did not do on any of the other rugs as I just have images of a little hand giving a little tug and her ending up with a fist full of rug and I don't want that. With the other rugs you do get snips working their way out but you don't notice as they are packed in nice and tightly.

This is how far I have got so far. I have started on the outside as this worked better for me and as it is round I am adding a row at a time. I am cutting these snips longer as I am knotting them. This consists of 2 rows of lilac, 2 rows of white and I have just started on pink and I am doing 2 rows of pink  and then another 2 rows of white after that who knows.
 It takes longer than you think to get around the outside, about an hour and it takes more fabric than you think. For example the 2 outside row has taken one and a half t-shirts. As I am working towards the centre  the rows should get quicker  hopefully.

One of the first rugs made

This is one of the first rugs that we did. It is a sunflower at the bottom with a butterfly hovering above. This was a experiments to see how it would work and it worked quite well but I think I like using patterns for the rugs rather than making pictures. With this rug we also used a wide variety of fabrics, not just knitted fabric and although it looks quite impressive it does create a lot of litter (bits of cotton) even though it is vacuumed on a regular basis.

This is the back of the rug and I always think the back looks better than the front. You can definitely see the picture here. They are very sturdy rugs and heavier than you would think.

Rug making - Starting a rag rug

I am just starting another rag rug for a little girl. I have decided to make a round one this time. I have not done round before but it should be relatively easy. I am struggling a bit for fabric as I would like it to be pink and white but I don't have any pink material. Well I do have pink material but not the correct sort for this project. I think I will have to go around to some charity shops to see if I can find some t-shirts that I can cut up. That will be a day out next week I guess.
I have cut out and hemmed around my hessian so that the edge will be neat when the rug is finished so no need to do any extra work when my rug is completely pegged.

It looks really boring at this stage (and this one resembles a crisp!) but it will soon take shape. You can see where I have tacked the outer edge and this will be the top of the rug so the underside will look very tidy and finished.