HOW TO MAKE RAG RUG FROM OLD CLOTHES

Upcycling brings out creativity in a person. Have you seen posts about old t-shirts or any material at home transformed into new products? T-shirts to bags, tires to cushions, oil drums to wash basins. Aren’t they lovely? They prove that there is a lot we can do with our old stuff at home! Aside from having a new product, you have helped the environment in the process. Upcycling has been one of my dream activities. Although I usually give my dresses away when I could not wear them anymore, I still have many old shirts with me. They are still wearable. If I cannot use them when going out, I wear them at home. I think I have taken my mother’s habit of keeping stuff until they are worn out. I cannot let go of my things easily. Would you believe that I still have Valentine’s Day and Christmas cards from my classmates during elementary days? So they are around 22 years old by now, but still intact. 😀

With the enhanced community quarantine going on, I finally got time to experiment on making new things out of our old fabrics. I made a rag rug! I first watched tutorials on Youtube to make sure I could make one. You can find many videos using different techniques of making this rug. But here is what I did.

1. I cut the shirts into strips with approximately equal width. I used only one old t-shirt (white) and a piece of Gina cloth or Gina silk, which we previously used as a banner in one activity.
2. I “stitched/joined” the strips together by making a small cut in two strips. One strip was considered the main strip, and the other was the adjoining piece. I inserted the adjoining piece into the cut in the main strip, pulled it a bit, and inserted its remaining part into its cut to seal them together. You can look for videos about this or you can try sewing them end to end. We will need long strips so we need to join them together. This is the part where I made a mistake. After joining the strips together, it is advised to make them into a ball of fabric strips. I did not do that, and it made braiding difficult. Three balls of strips are needed.
3. I took three strips and made a knot at their end. You can also sew them. Then I hooked it into something to assist in braiding. For me, I hooked them into one handle of our cabinet.
4. Braid, braid, braid! I got tired in this step so instead of having a long braid for a rag rug, I got one enough for a big potholder. 😀
5. This is it! Sewing time! This is actually a bit hard for me because I did it by hand. (I really need to buy a sewing machine after the quarantine!) Others glued the braid to a base piece. And here is my final product, my first upcycling product!

Don’t mind the end part. I don’t know how to end the braid in a pretty way. :’( I also don’t know how long it took to finish this piece. You know, I easily get tired. I work on it according to “Fave’s pace.” There are still other techniques that I want to try. Soon. 🙂 I wonder how many rag rugs we will have after the quarantine. 😀

What to do now with my upcycled shirt? I cannot bear to see it being ruined as a potholder yet so I let Pau use it for now. He hates having a cup of coffee or a glass of water near his laptop. I will put this on his table to serve as his drink coaster.

After making this rag rug, I asked my husband to give me all the shirts he could not wear anymore. And I got a pile of them waiting to be transformed! I can already imagine how to upcycle them! Exciting! If you have your own upcycling ideas, do it now and share them to us!

Who says this quarantine is boring? It’s not! I hope you are enjoying this long “vacation” too. God bless!