Rag Rug
by Ashley Weeks Cart
Finally! The rug I started for the girls’ bedroom MONTHS ago is finished! It’s not technically a rag rug, as I am no sewer. Instead, I made balls of fabric yarn and crocheted an oval rug. But it is definitely inspired by the aesthetic of a rag rug.
I used old, stained white sheets and fabrics I had lying around the house for its creation. I dyed the sheets bright colors and rotated between the fabrics to create the rainbow explosion you see above. I especially like that I was able to incorporate the fabrics we’ve used throughout the redesign into the rug. The center of the rug is the scraps of the umbrella fabric from the love seat cover. And the outer border of the rug is the scraps from the material we used to upholster Addison’s floor bed. It ties it all together nicely.
Materials:
Old sheets and fabrics
Scissors
Jumbo crochet hook
Directions:
1. Cut fabrics into 1″ thick stripes.
2. To make seamless fabric yarn, attach stripes end to end, snip a small hole, and thread the top sheet through the bottom and pull.
3. Grab your crochet hook and get to crocheting all that fabric yarn. I started by chaining 5 stitches and then single crochet stitching into each side of the chain, adding three stitches at the top of each side of the chain. I then went round and round in this fashion using a single crochet stitch, and adding three stitches on the round corners of each end. It took far longer than I anticipated and was particularly unwieldy at the end. But well worth it, methinks! And it was an amazing way to put all that fabric to use!
Photos: Ashley Weeks Cart
Very pretty! I am making one for our kitchen right now. Thank you for the inspiration!!!
Awesome work! What kind of bed does she have?
It’s a floor bed that my husband built for her! Pretty cool, no? The whole DIY for that is here: http://blogalacart.com/2011/04/floor-bed-part/
And thanks!
Hi I want to make a rug like this. I dont really understand your directions though. You said chain 5 to get started “then single crochet stitching into each side of the chain” Im not sure what you mean by “into each side of the chain. This rug you made is so pretty! Thank you
It means that you stitch onto both sides of the stitches so that you wind up working in an oval. I don’t know how else to describe it. Look for some YouTube videos so you have a visual. I hope that’ll help! Good luck!