Any rag rug makers? Any tips please?

[Tinklewinkle]

I've just finished decorating DD's bedroom. She has an enormous room and it looks a bit bare so I've been on the hunt for a big rug as I think it may help to break it up a bit.

I can't find anything that looks right and is big enough and is not £££££ so I thought I'd make a rag rug.

My gran used to make them when I was a child but I've never done it myself, but in theory it looks manageable.

I've ordered some hessian, and I've got 2m of pink and 2m of white sheeting stashed away somewhere, would that work OK? Do I need to get some more sheeting? It's to go in her room so I don't want random colours, I was going for pink and white stripes.

I've inherited my Gran's bag of knitting needles and there's a couple of tools in there - a latch hook and a prodder, do I need anything else?

I'm aiming for about a 200cm x 150cm rug - although I'm a complete horror for starting projects and never finishing them so we could end up with a table mat

Thank you!

I am not an expert but I did go to a workshop on rag rug making recently (wouldn't necessarily recommend one, it was very boring . Anyway, I bought a prodder and a gauge thing. When you have cut your long striptease you wind them round the gauge and it allows you to cut a dozen or so pieces at a time.

Only thing I would suggest is that different fabrics behave differently so you will need to experiment to get the right width to make sure that it stays securely put in your hessian. Took a bit of experimenting every time I changed fabrics, I.e. You used a thinner strip of fleece to cotton.

Strips!

m.youtube.com/watch?v=_F2tuanRtd0

This is the gauge - probably not essential by any means but the place I went sold the prodder and gauge as a kit.

Thank you!

I saw those gauges on Amazon for about £5 when I ordered the hessian, so I'll order one of those too - anything that makes cutting all those strips easier has got to be worth a fiver

Most of the tutorials I've looked at seem to recommend cutting the strips at 1inch by 3 inches. It'll all be in cotton sheeting, I don't want it to be random if you see what I mean, I want it to be uniform stripes, all the same colour

Do you knot the strips once in? Some sites seem to recommend knotting the strips, some don't

Thanks again!

I also did a workshop (and agree, it wasn't that interesting!) and I remember that they said to choose the fabric carefully, things like cotton will fray and not be hard wearing for a rug on the floor (rather than a decorative one). They recommended sweatshirt material (but said it was quite tricky to get hold of), woollen fabrics and synthetic fleece as being the best kind to use.

Be warned, it could take ages to make a biggish rug - we made a 6 inch sample and that took a couple of hours.

Hi tinkle .... In my vast experience of one project I didn't knot them, I presume that is why the fabric strip has to be the right width so that it holds tight in the hessian.

I am going away tomorrow, camping, and taking it with me, the fact that it isn't a precise sort of thing means that I plan on doing it in the evenings - poor light, glass of wine etc..

This starfish was rag rugged as part of a textile course I did.

The theory is the strips are tightly packed and hold each other in place

Thanks!

I love the starfish!

I'm not great at sitting still in the evening without something to fiddle with. I had been knitting afghan blankets but have finished them and am sick of the sight of my knitting needles.

I'm aiming for something like the photo, although straight stripes, not diagonal ones. I just don't want to use different fabrics/colours if that makes sense, I was going to use the cotton sheeting as I already have it kicking about in the loft (part of another project I never actually got round to doing

Although I quite like the second one, but I'm not sure if it would work with just the 2 colours.