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Media Press Recycle Tutorial: Woven Rag Rug
Thank you for all the great feedback for liking my Braided Rag Rug. I understand that not everyone has a sewing machine or/and able to sew, so I created this no-sew version for the non-sewer who like to recycle their bed sheets or de-stash their fabrics to make this feet cozy Woven Rag Rug. This tutorial doesn’t require any loom for weaving; just use a sturdy corrugated carton box from your recycle pile.
I hope everyone can do their part on greening the Earth again and reduce the rubbish that loaded the landfill. By the way, I gave the braided rag rug to my mum and she loves it so much, she is going to dig more old bed sheets out from her storage, which means I will have another bunch of supply to recycle. I need to scratch my head for more stuff to make from them. 
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I love this!!! I can’t wait to try it. Thanks for the tutorial. Donna
I love that you created a no-sew version, you rock! Thanks so much, I’ll be linking.
I didn’t completely understand a couple parts, which you may have covered somewhere else, but I’ll ask anyways:
1. You said you had 12 strips of fabric in each slot–so did you weave each of those 12 strips individually, or did you weave around the entire bunch at one time?
2. The warp strips are those that are running up and down–the ones you’re weaving around, right?
3. Did your finished rug turn out the same size as your weaving board, or was it a different size?
Thank you!
Hi Regina,
Thanks for the questions:
1. I weaved the entire whole bunch of 12 strips at one time
2. Warp is the 12 strips, weft is the weaving strip
3. The finished rug is smaller than the weaving board since we pull the warp bunches close to each other during weaving.
Hope this help.
Thanks so much! I’ll be keeping my eye out at thrift stores for some inexpensive sheets so I can try this out. I also love the braided rug idea, I might have to try that, too!
Are these rugs suitable as ‘bath mats’? or not really? if not, what would you find is the best place to use it? I’d love to know this so I know what I might think I’ll use it for before I start.
thanks!
This is absolutely suitable to use as a bath mat, since it is super absorbent. I put it just outside my bathroom.
I LOVE your photography!!! Thanks for creating a ‘no sew’ for me:)
I stumbled your post BTW!!!
Thank you, Alison
to share this tutorial among your community !!!
Thanks for sharing!! Your site/blog is really amazing! I’ll be linking to your rugs tutorials in my next post!!
Thanks, Alessia, I am glad that you share it with your readers.
Wonderful ways to use things you already have. My Grandmother and I use a floor loom to make rag rugs out of some material that is also recycled. She has made rugs out of bread bags. Very good to use outside on your porch. Takes a lot of bread bags and keeps the plastic out of the landfills. Right now she is making some rugs using some of my great Grandmothers fabric she had rolled before she passed away years ago. The balls are from old sheets, dresses and shirts. Love to see other people being so crafty………
Adorei, este tapete pois não sei costura, voce é genial
Translation (by Google):
I loved this rug because I do not know sewing, you’re brilliant
This is great! I’m linking to this one too, it would be a great project for kids too! all the best!
Bonjour de la France
Bravo pour Tout CE Que Vous FAITES et partagez , Bravo pour AVOIR eu de Bonnes Idées .
JE suis la machine brodeuse , surfais JE verser chercher Fournisseur de feuille face hydrosoluble UNE Adhesif Pour faire technique Avec fibres suis Tombée sur Votre site, au Fournisseur CAS Où Vous connaissez des Nations Unies en Chine Pas trop cher serait super CE de m’aider .
Bonne continuation
Astrid
Translation (by Google):
Hello from France
Congratulations for everything you do and share, Bravo have had good ideas.
I am a machine embroiderer, I was surfing paid search provider soluble sheet face a membership for technical expertise with fibers came across your site, Where the Supplier IF you know the United Nations in China Not too expensive would be great to help me EC.
Bonne continuation
Astrid
I would lov eto feature this tutorial on my blog: http://vintagesheets.blogspot.com Please let me know if tat would be all right.
thanks,
jen
Sure!! I would love to be featured
I don’t understand this statement. Could you explain it?
“Join and new strip to the start end and do the same.”
Thanks!
It is a typo, thanks for pointing it up. I must be too tired when I wrote this post :p
I rephrased it for clearer understanding:” Do the same on the other end of the rag. Join a new strip to sew and tie”.
Hi!
Wanted you to know I posted a link to this tutorial on my blog, PaperFriendly.
I love the colors of this woven rug!
I have a question. Did you weave the rug diagonally?
If not, how did you get the weave to look that way?
For reference, here’s a link to a picture of how I would expect horizontal/vertical weaving to look.
http://secure.mcc.org/mccstore/images/RUG.jpg
See the difference?
I weaved it horizontally.
The difference is I used different thickness for the weaving and warp strips. My warp strips are very thick, about 6 times thicker than the weaving strip. When I weaved I pull the warp strip together and they became crunch up and formed the diamond shape pattern.
Hello again, this is the comment I was referring to about different thickness for the weaving and warp.
Thank you.
Absolutely fabulous! Thank you so much for sharing this. This will make a great rug for our kitchen/baby’s room/bathroom. I LOVE the way you used an old sheet – we have some of those lying around…and also, our local thrift store always has old sheets on sale. Perfect!
Hey I didnt understand how you secure the tail end in the first slot and I dont understand the steps for the last row
Just tie a knot to secure them
Hey, I was wondering if you needed to cut the silts on both ends of the cardboard? or just one side?
Thanks,
Morgan
Both ends. I took closed-up photo so that you all can view better, that’s why each every photo only show 1 side LOL…
Thank you for this pattern – I was really struggling to figure out whether to cut both ends of the cardboard. So glad someone already asked the same question!
do you think this would work with wool. I have tons of felted wool and am looking for a project to use it.
thanks. Your creation and idea is brilliant!
I am not sure about wool. Please give it a try and let us know how it turns out
Hi..i too just stumbled upon this..& it definitely seems a great idea for someone like me..who’s not very good with needles..i am planning to try making a small one with strips of old clothes..hope it comes out this good
Hi, Mira, it sure comes out pretty and nice! Just do it
Hope to see yours soon!
Beautiful work, well done
id love to turn this into a double bed cover, how would i do that ?
Tough question!!!! If you are using this method, then you will need to have a very big cardboard to make the “loom”, or may be you will need to combine a few smaller pieces into the size you need by sewing them up.
Thanks, if im succesfull ill send you a picture.
I’m a little confused on how to start the weaving process.
Do you weave with a completely seperate piece of scrap? If so, I’m
confused on what to do with the loose ends when you weave a row?
Do you use one very long piece and when you get to the end, turn and
keep going?
Thank you-
This part is also confusing to me
Do you have a super long weaving piece to go one way, then reverse, then the same way again?? Please explain.
You can always join the weaving strip when it is not long enough.
Sorry, so I see the last row you should tie the warp strips, I think that is what is confusing me. Tie in a knot? to the weaving strip?
You are so talented….I’ve spent the whole afternoon looking at all your projects. Beautiful. One day I will try to make this rag rug. I’ve crocheted rag rugs, but your way looks so nice. I would like to attempt a large one. This will take many more sheets…but my husband visit many thrift stores and they have many sheets. First I will check my closets! I will continue to check back on your website. I look forward to your future projects!!!! Thank you!
me encanto la página hermoso todo lo que haces, te felicito por no ser egoista y enseñar, el unico problema es que no entiendo nada en inglés no se puede encontrar la traducción perdone la molestia pero soy colombiana y no hablo inglés
Translation (by Google):
beautiful page I love everything you do, I congratulate you for not being selfish and teach, the only problem is I do not understand anything in English you can not find the translation forgive the inconvenience but I’m Colombian and I do not speak English
Sorry, I can’t read Spanish either (sigh… languages barrier!!!) I used Google to translate so that I can guess the content.
May be you can try using this translation, hope that it helps.
Hi. I’m confused about the step below:
Weave the last row in opposite direction by creating a crisscross, pull the weaving strip and tie the warp strips in place.
Do the same on the other end of the rag. Join a new strip to sew and tie
not sure what you mean here…If you have time to respond I’d appreciate it!
My family used to make these often – it is common for French Canadian heritage I guess. I’ve never made one and I haven’t seen one in a long time. I’ll be giving this a shot! Thanks for sharing!
Wow, I didn’t know that this piece of craft is related to French Canadian heritage!!! It sounds wonderful!!!! Hope to see your rug soon.
Hi, Curious if you would be interested or if you already have, made a youtube video to illustrate. My rug is not looking like yours and I dont want to keep going to have it turn out wrong. Yours has the nice bumps of fabric between the weaves, where mine it not and its flat and you can see the weaving..
What did I do wrong?
You need to pull the weaving strip to get them closer. The actual size is narrower than the cardboard. Please try and see if you can get it right.
Videoing is a little inconvenient for me as no one helps me to hold the camera while I work on it. I don’t want to place the camera on the tripod because that will make the video too far to see clearly.
No worries!
Thank you so much for getting back to me still today. I really appreciate it. I was curious how many rows you did across? I have 20 bunches of 12 and was worried that this will not make it large enough for the area I want to put it in. How many did you do?
I have about 37 to 38 bunches to come out to a size of 16″ .
so you put 12 stripes in 37 to 38 rows. . . how large does that make the rug?
What if i wanted to use queen sheets instead .. what do you think about that?
Hi! I was actually looking or something else when I stumbled on this website! And just in time too!!! I’m getting married in 5 months and I’ve been wanting to add to my “hope chest” This is a great way to do it, also the braided rag rug!! If you don’t mind I’d like to share this with my blog?? I’d love to show my friends!
Please feel free to refer them to this post by a link.
Hello. Thanks for this fun tutorial. I wondered if I could use this to make place mats with denim material (more specifically, the legs I cut off from my daughter’s jeans).
It is possible. The the feeling and touching will different from this as the material is denim, be expected that it is stiffer and more rigid.
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I didn`t understand..=( I wish u have video on this…
Hi! I am making your rag rugs with a group of girls and they are looking cute! Thanks for sharing the pattern. I have one question. Could you explain how you are finishing the ends? I couldn’t figure that part out. I didn’t want the weaving strand to ravel out. Do you knot the ends?
Thanks!
I sewed and tied the ends with the sewing strip, the same strip that I weave the rag rug.
Curious to see how big the rug will turn out if I use a King sheet . . . also, how large it will turn out if i use a queen sheet. I am having trouble finding king size sheets in my area. Do you cut the stripes long ways or along the shorter end?
Hi Craft Passion.
I really love this rag rug.
Thanks for taking the time to put together this tutorial.
I have included it in a post about great gifts for women and girls.
You can have a look here….
http://allysonadeney.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/17-handmade-gifts-for-women-and-older-girls-with-tutorials/
…. if you like.
Ally of harrysdesk.
Wow! What a beautiful rug! thank you for sharing : )
Is there no end to your talent? Oh my goodness! You are a one-girl-wonder! What a wonderful site–
Hi can you tell me what camera you use for your photos?
I used Canon 1000D for these photos.
You might have answered this already, but how long does this take approximately?
Hello, what width were your weaving and warp strips for this rug pictured? I am getting ready to make this. I see you said 1″-2″ for the warp strips and saw you said your weaving strip was 6x smaller than your warp, but what was the specific (or close to) width?
Thank you!
I used 1″ for the both warp and weaving strip.
Sorry, I couldn’t understand your second question since I never mention about 6 x smaller.
I am a rug fanatic and love this so much. I can’t wait to get busy making one. It doesn’t look that complicated. Thanks for posting instructions.
I’m curious, has anyone else had troubles fitting 12 strands into the cardboard? I ended up having to tie the strands down because they kept slipping out. Fun project, but I site underestimated how long it would take to prepare my fabric strips. Can’t wait to see the finished product!!!! Thanks for sharing the instructions – I found you via Pinterest.
Oops. Sure, not site. Dang autocorrect!
Hey Karen, I found it difficult to fit 6 into the slots, but found it easy to use clothespins to bunch six strips together, then took painters tape to secure them to the cardboard after they were all in the slots. I am done weaving now and just need to figure out how to tie the warps to secure them. The prepping it the most time consuming. I only worked on the weaving yesterday and this morning, and will definitely take less than a day for those without a little one-year-old running around.
Hope this helps!
Can this rug be washed??
Yes, it is washable. I have washed mine a few times using washing mashing (cool water) and it still look nice and neat.
curious..when you cut your king size sheets into strips, do you leave the full length or cut them a little larger than the cardboard.? thanks!
Cut them larger than the cardboard.
You could do the same thing with plastic grocery bags.
Certainly!
I love this and thank you so much for the tutorial , really clear instructions.
If I do make one I will be sure to let you know
Just off to browse the rest of your site x
This is a great idea! I’ve got a couple of worn-out bedsheets that I’ve saved the material from, though I didn’t have anything in mind that I wanted to turn them into. This will come in really handy, though, as will the braided rug idea.
What a fabulous project!! I’m featuring it on my “Top 10 Awesome Recycled Craft Projects” today at http://www.cheapcraftymama.com, be sure to grab a button if you want. Also I would love for you to share this (and any other creations) at my “Pin It and Win It Wednesday” starting this evening!
Hey how big is the rug from the 3 king bed sheets?
Thank you for posting the instructions for this rug – it is one of the prettiest I’ve seen and I can’t wait to try it! I have a question about the length of the strips. If you tear the king sheets into 1 or 2″ strips, do you leave the strips the full length of the sheet or do you cut them the size of the cardboard plus your 6″ overhang on each end? Thank you.
Hi Marla, I didn’t cut the length, I just fold them up and it gave about 6″ on each end.
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