How To Make A Braided Rag Rug Without Any Sewing

I tried making a braided rag rug, and it turned into a no-sew braided rag rug after I tried the sewing version. Here's a step-by-step photo tutorial showing how to do it, with a bunch of warnings and tips for someone who's never made one before, because it's not as easy as the videos on YouTube make it out to be! How long did it take to make the rug? This is one of the things I want to point out, because the videos that I watched on the University of YouTube made it seem like it would go a lot faster. It took me a few hours to round up the fabric and tear the strips. If I had cut them by hand it would add to the time. It took me anywhere from 4-6 hours to actually make the braids. I didn't time it exactly, but I worked on it for a few hours over a couple of days, and it wasn't a super-fast process. If you do a lot of rag rugs you'll probably get faster with experience, but for a first-time project don't plan on this being done in a day! To actually sew the rug together it was a couple of hours, then to UNDO the sewing it took me an additional 4 hours. I will say that as I was sewing, I thought that the rug was flat, but when I was done it wasn't, which is why I undid it. More on that later. To hand-sew the rug together it was probably another 6-8 hours. Again, if you're experienced at any of this it will take less time, but this wasn't a fast process. Total time put into this project was around 16 hours if I take the sewing and undoing the sewing part out. With the mistakes and undoing the mistakes it was closer to 22 hours. If you plan on this being a multiple-day project, it's a realistic estimate. Don't feel like you're doing something wrong if it doesn't go as fast as you think it will! How much fabric it took to make the rag rug, and what fabric to use. For the final rag rug, which was about 30" across, I used an old queen-sized fitted sheet that I had torn into strips that were about 1 1/2" wide on average, plus twice the same amount in different colored fabrics. Based on the size of a queen-sized sheet, I estimate that I used about 15-16 yards of fabric total. If you're using old sheets, it would take about 3 queen-sized sheets, or around 4 regular twin sheets. like I said, my finished rug was about 30" across, so if you want yours to be bigger, you'll need more fabric. I plan on adding more to this rug, since you can keep making it larger over time, so it's something that you can use your old fabric scraps for. For another article that goes over how to make an oval rag rug, click here. Cutting the strips. You can either cut the strips one-by-one, or rip them. If you don't want to do either, you can buy them pre-cut from Lyon Handwovens here: Fabric strips for weaving. If you're going to cut them, you'll probably be using a rotary cutter and a cutting mat, and that will take a little longer. I ripped the sheet that I was using as the main color because I didn't want to cut it, and ripping it is faster. The downside to ripping the fabric is that you'll get threads that are loose on the edges, but that's not a big deal. You can cut the extra threads off, and when you're pulling the fabric through the loops as you sew it together it creates loose threads anyway. I cut the elastic out of the fitted sheet and ripped it into strips. I chose a bunch of coordinating colors from my fabric stash and ripped them up, too. I tore them into strips that were about 1 1/2" wide. I didn't measure the strips that I tore, I just cut the edge of the sheet pretty evenly by eye, then I tore them all along the grain of the sheet. Here's the pile of torn strips. I ripped the different fabrics up and put them in piles with the same colors so that I could grab a variety as I worked. You can use coordinating colors in the same range, or you can mix it up completely and end up with a totally random rug. Since the braids mix the colors up as they're made, I decided to stick with coordinating colors so that there would be some cohesiveness. Get sewing supplies on Amazon. How to attach the strips together. There are a few ways to attach the fabric together, and I think that the one that I didn't do is the one that I'll do in the future, even though it takes a little more time. Knot method. The first method is the fastest and is secure because the strips are physically knotted to each other. The downside of this method is that it does create a knot, so you have places in the rug that are bumpy with fabric edges visible. To do this, fold the end of the fabric strip over and cut a small slit in it. It should end up being about half an inch long, but the smaller that works, the better. Cut a slit in the end of another strip that you'll be attaching to the first one, and pull that strip through the hole on the first one just enough to show the cut part. Thread the other end of the new strip through the cut on the new one, basically looping it through itself with the old strip in between the loop. Pull the new strip tight to make a knot that's attached to the old one. Try to fold the edges down so that it's not sticking out, but if it does stick out a little it's okay. Weaving-in method. The weaving-in method is what I used for this rug, and it was okay, but I had a couple of moments where it might not be the best. As you work you have to fold a new strip into the one you've been working on, then you continue braiding. The braid should hold the two strips together, but I did have a section in the braids that came undone, and I had to figure out how to fix it as I was sewing the rug together, so that was a pain. It was also a little difficult to get the strips to stay together unless the two strips overlapped at least 3-4 inches, so that uses up a lot of fabric over the length of the braided strip. So there were some not-so-great moments with this method, even though it was okay. It just wasn't the most secure at holding the braid together. To do this, stop braiding when you get toward the end of a strip, leaving about 4" open. Put a new strip of fabric on top of the end of the first one, with the right side of the new strip pointing in the same direction as the old one. Fold the new fabric on top of the old one and keep braiding. Make sure that there's enough of both fabrics overlapping so that the braid grabs both ends and keeps them enclosed in multiple loops of the braid. Sew strips together method. This is the method that takes the most time, but it's the most secure and it avoids knots in your strips. To use this method, you just sew the end of the strip that's running out to the end of the new strip. That's it. It will take a little longer, and it's an extra step, but it ends up with a flat strip that's securely attached. If I do another braided rug this is what I'm going to do, and I'll probably do a lot of strips sewn together before I start braiding. That way I'll have longer strips to use and won't have to stop and sew them as I work. Pam Lyon, owner of Lyan Handwovens, explains the sewing process like this: "In regard to sewing the strips together, depending on the thickness of the fabric being used standard practice is to lay the two ends to be joined together perpendicular (making a right angle) and stitch diagonally from one outside corner to the the other - when opened up this forms a straight strip (if you use the wrong corners, as my daughter did when she was helping me, you just get another L shape). Then just add a new strip to the opposite end of one of the two just sewed the same way. No need to cut the thread just keep chaining them together and then trim the corners and clip the chained threads all at the same time. "Sewing on the diagonal spreads the seam out so that it is less noticeable and bulky. This may not make any difference with a braid, but the chaining will save time regardless of how the strips are sewn." Start the rug! Start with three strips of fabric, and cut slits in all of them. Overlap two of them. Stick the third strip through the holes in the overlapped two so that the hole on the third one is sticking out. Pull the end of the third strip through the slit in it, so that it encloses the two other ones inside the loop. Pull the third strip tight so that all three strips are knotted together. That's going to be the start of your braid. Now you have three connected strips and you can start braiding. https://youtu.be/VE1I3RHVyD0 Braiding the strips. I found a few ways that people use to hold the braid while they're making it. There are people who tape the braid to the counter and use that to hold it in place. There are also people who have a brick that's wrapped in fabric so that they can have something heavy to pin the braid to. That made a lot of sense to me (using something heavy as an anchor) but pinning and unpinning the braid to the fabric seemed time-consuming. So I found a styrofoam cake dummy that I used for cakes, and I attached the braid to it with a T-pin that was easy to pull in and out as I had to reposition the braid. That worked fine except that it was light, so I couldn't put a ton of force on the braid as I was making it. I think that being able to really pull on the braid would be good, because you can make it tighter, and that would be less stretchy. The stretchier the braid, the more likely that it will sew unevenly later, and that can make the rug warp. So figure out something that works for you, but I like the idea of the brick wrapped in fabric. Maybe do a brick in fabric, but also put a piece of thick cork on it inside the fabric that you can use to stick a T-pin in. The important part is that you have a way to keep the braid secure while you're working on braiding it. Pinning the braid in place on the styrofoam block. Making the braid. As I was making the braid I would it into a ball, but I didn't think about the fact that I put the beginning of the strip in the middle of it, so I ended up having to totally unwind it when I started making the rug. If you do wind a ball, make sure that you're doing it so that you can pull the braid out from the center of the ball, which is a step that I overlooked! As I made the braid I was getting impatient, so I took it and laid it out to see how big the rug would be if I used that length of braid. I wanted it to be bigger so I kept working on it, but you can do this to get an idea of how much braid you'll need. This would also be a good thing to do if you want to pin the rug together before you start sewing to help you avoid warping the rug. I've seen people pin the strands together but I think that would be difficult, so I skipped that step. It might be good to do that just to give you a better chance at not having a wavy or bowl-shaped rug! First try at sewing the rug with a machine. I sewed this at first, so I'm adding this here, but I ended up ripping out all of the stitching because the rug had turned into a bowl as I was sewing it. I think that misshapen rugs are probably the most common problem, because it's going to take experience with knowing how much braid to attach to keep the rug flat. Start the rug by coiling the end on itself. I sewed the coil to itself, and did a little bit, then I looked at it and I didn't like it. Since I had used a neutral colored thread, I thought that it would work, but it was too obvious. So I cut that part off to use as an example of what not to do. If you do decide to zigzag the rug, use a color that matches the rug better. I did that and it looked better, but it was misshapen, so I undid it and decided to sew it together by hand. A tool for cleaning up the threads. I wanted to mention that this cat hair tool was very useful when I had to clean up the threads from picking out all the stitches. The carpet was so clean after I used it I didn't have to get the vacuum out! You can see it on Amazon here: Uproot pet hair cleaner (#ad) Second attempt, sewing with a rug needle. I decided that sewing it together by hand was going to be a better way to go, since I would be able to adjust the stitches and check for flatness as I worked on the rug. I have a wooden rug needle that I bought when I made the Amish Knot Rug (See that article here) so I used it for this, too. These photos show the stitch pattern that I used, sewing right-handed and attaching the coil to the rug in a counterclockwise direction: Sewing with the yellow/green strip at the bottom of the photo. This shows where the fabric strip is woven into the rug and the strip as they're joined together. I was working with my right hand and sewing from right to left, so it's basically weaving the two strips together as you go. As you sew the strip onto the rug you basically want to keep the edges of the strips butted up against each other and try to cover up gaps with the strip that you're sewing with. if it's too tight it will flatten the braid out, and if it's too loose you'll have holes in the rug. Keep the strips right next to each other, and if the edges are touching they'll be fine. Start by threading the wooden rug needle with a fabric strip. You can find these on Etsy here: Wooden Rug Needles or on Amazon here: Wooden Rug Needles (#ad) As you're working, lay the braid up against the edge of the rug on a flat surface so that you can see how the braid needs to line up to keep the finished rug flat. Sometimes you have to skip a loop in the braid to give it a little extra fabric so that it isn't too tight, but you'll have to figure this out as you work. If you feed too much braid onto the sewn part it will be wavy when it's done, because the extra fabric won't lie flat. On the other hand, if it's too tight and you don't give it enough fabric, it will bowl up because the outer edge won't be able to lie flat. That's the balance that you'll get with experience, but I can pretty much promise you that your first rug will be a little wonky. To stitch the rug, put the rug on a flat surface and then stitch the braid to it by going through a loop on the bottom of the braid. If you're working from right to left (right-handed) you want the braid stiches to line up with the main rug part to create a V that's shaped like this: < That way, you can stitch from right to left through the top of the <, then back down on the sewn rug section in the bottom of the next < Basically, the stitches should look like <<<<<<< when you line the braid up to the rug. That way the stitches will be even as you weave the two pieces to each other. Here's the bottom stitch going through the bottom of the < shape. As you sew, try to flatten out the fabric strip that you're sewing with so that it covers as much of the space between the two pieces that you're sewing as possible. The fabric strip that you're sewing with will twist as you work, so just take the time to untwist it every now and then. Here's another view of the stitches as the braid is being sewn to the rug. I used the same light blue to stitch most of the braid, so the back of the rug was very blue. This is the front of the rug. The blue is still visible in spaces between the rows, but the colors of the braids are a lot more obvious on the front. For the most part, the color that you stitch the braids together with aren't going to be 100% visible, but they will show a little, so make sure that the colors coordinate. Finished rug and things I noticed. I REALLY like making rugs...I'm going to try a few different styles to see which one is the best for me, but the braided one is a really nice look. This was the finished rug, and it's a little wavy in places, but it didn't create a bowl. Wavy is fine, it's still usable, but it's not perfectly flat, so if you're a perfectionist just be aware that this is probably a craft that you'll have to practice before you know how to judge the amount of fabric you need and where to stitch. Waves or bowls... Keeping the rug flat as I made it definitely helped with preventing a bowl forming, but I think that I need to skip fewer sttiches the next time. I thought that skipping a < shape every now and then while I was stitching would help to keep the bowl from forming, which it did, but it created a few spots on the rug where there was to much fabric. That means that the braid kind of bulges out a little because there's too much fabric with nowhere to go. So the first thing that you'll need to master is figuring out is the amount of braid to feed into the stitching, and the tension of the stitching. Doing it by hand was definitely good, though, because I could adjust stitches if they were too tight or too loose as I was working. Here's the cat looking like a little demon (he's very sweet, I don't know why he's doing this with his ears but it's kind of funny.) The thing to remember with these rugs is that even if they're not perfect, cats and dogs will still love to lie on them. You can kind of see the waves in this photo. I'm pointing to a low spot, but it looks like you can also see a shadow in the front where there's another spot that's uneven. it's hard to get a good photo of it because it's not super obvious, but you can kind of see it. This is the same photo from above where I was estimating the size of the braid. I think that if I can figure out a way to pin the braid to itself before stitching it, it will be a better guide to where the loops need to line up. I'll have to give that some thought, though, because I can't think of a good way to pin it without having the pins move around when you move it. If you have suggestions, leave a comment! You can also see the end of the braid poking out at the lefthand side here. Since I want to make this one larger, I didn't finish off the ends of the braid, I just wove each strand into the back of the rug to hold them in place. When I want to add to the rug, I'll be able to pull the ends out and keep braiding more length to them by adding more strips to it. For now, though, the cat can sit on it since he seems to have claimed it. Another thing to notice is that when I finished stitching the braid to the outer edge, I had run out of the light blue strips, and I was using a dark blue color. You can see that the outer edge of the rug is darker, so it shows that the color that you use to stitch the braid to the finished party does show a little. You can use that to add a pattern of color to the rug as you're working on it if you wanted to plan it out. I hope that this article gives you some insight into making a braided rag rug. I love making fabric rugs, it's a great way to use up extra fabric scraps, old sheets, and old clothing. I'll be trying more varieties of rugs since there are so many! Check out the Amish Knot Rug articles to see what those look like. Related articles: