Rag Rug Tutorial

I’ve seen one of these at my friend’s house and always wanted one. I also recently saw a picture of one on Craft Passion’s blog and then REEEEAAALLLLLYYYY needed to learn to make one. So here it is. It definitely looks better in person. But I’m happy with it and I’m going to try to show how I made it. This project is a great way to use up ALOT of scrap fabric!

Step 1: Make the base. Cut out two pieces of fabric and sandwich inside some batting. This one is approximately 21-inches x 16-inches.

Step 2: Cut out a whole bunch of little rectangles. These will be the little rag ribbons. These were  7-inches x 5-inches.

Step 3: This is how I fold each little rectangle (rag ribbon). First, you’re going to fold the 7-inch way in like a gate.

Then fold the top down about halfway (sorry this pictures shows more like two-thirds of the way down, but as I made these, I realized it was too low. So only fold down about halfway).

Fold across again (inward, like that gate fold).

Pull down a little flap. Now you are ready to sew on to your rug base.

Step 4: As you finish folding a little rectangle, you can sew it onto your rug base. As you sew, make sure you are sewing along that little flap that’s folded down, catching the folded bit underneath. Here’s a picture of the rag ribbon piece that was NOT sewn correctly:
If this happens, you can just shove that little flap back in and sew on top of it to make sure it’s securely sewn in place 🙂

Continue sewing until you have little rag ribbons along the perimeter of your rag base.

Step 5: Continue sewing each round until you have four levels of rag ribbons sewn in place. As you sew a new round, try to also sew the bottom tail part of the previous rag ribbon down also. This will prevent the rag ribbon underneath from fraying when you wash in the washing machine. It isn’t the end of the world if it frays.

Step 6: Finish the top with a puffy rectangle. I cut a piece of polyester batting for the top. Cut out a piece of fabric (I pieced together a few different coloured strips to tie in the multicolouredness of the whole rug) for the top. Iron the edges in and sew in place. Voila:

All the ribbon tails are hidden. Rag rug is ready for walking on!