Handmade Rag Rugs

When I was a little girl, our summer cottage was down the red dirt lane from an elderly aunt's. I think it was that early in my life that I fell in love with old furniture and antique items.  Leota (Oat for short) was widowed at a  young age and was left fairly comfortably. Her home was decorated so differently than mine, most of her furnishings came from estate sales and antique stores.  It was at her home that I remember looking at the huge rag rug.  I was only about three years old, but I remember my mother having tea, and I was set on the rug to play with lace edged hankies and little cedar box with a hinged lid and a little brass lock.  I remember the hankies smelled of lavender and cedar.  I remember laying on my belly, with sunlight shining in the picture window, while I traced the fabrics that made up the  the colourful strips in the recycled wool braids and played with the lacy bits of linen.

I have attempted braided rugs but I have never made much headway.  I have, however, made several crocheted rugs of cotton sheeting.  Crocheted rugs are instant gratification.  I made this 3’ round rug for my bathroom on a lazy Saturday, just before the new year. 

My rugs are made of cotton or poly-cotton sheets.  I keep a lookout for them at yard sales, or second hand stores. I don’t worry about patterns because they are not seen, it’s the colours and colour combinations that are important.

Rag rugs look great in any room, they wash fine.  The little ones will wash in the washing machine, the bigger rugs, I soak in the tub, scrub them with a little hand brush and let dry in the sun.  The older they get the more I like them, it is as though their colours wash out a bit, and they blend easily with my old furniture. 

Eren at Vintage Chica has a great tutorial on how to make your own rag rug.