So far, I've gone through one long coat and one blazer (red), one pleated knee-length skirt (cream), two straight knee-length skirts (black), and one pair of knee-length shorts (red plaid). It's a challenge to find the right tones, but it's cheap. One of our local thrift shops (Frenchy's) sells wool items for hooking at a dollar each. That brings the total so far to $6.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Braided rug project
I wanted to do a braided rug for the kitchen floor, something colorful and warm (for baby bottoms as well as our feet). It's made from strips of wool fabric snipped from thrift shop clothes that have been machine washed and dried. The fabric comes out shrunken, but not really felted. (Maybe the next rug will be from felted sweaters, though.) Cut the strips 2" wide, braid 3 of them together, and then start coiling and sewing. I make a braid a few feet long, and then coil it around, and (using heavy upholstery thread and a big needle) sew the coils. I've heard of people "lacing" the braids together invisibly, but I haven't done that (mostly because I'm clueless). I don't turn the raw edges together either, but I might try that next time, though it's not bothering me. A clothespin holds the working end so that the braid stays together. You can see it in the photo -- this is a work in progress.
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6 comments:
Very nice rug! You've done a wonderful job at coordinating the colors. That sure is a great deal that thrift shop has for wool items. I recently bought two wool sweaters for felting, and they weren't that cheap.
What a beautiful rug! The colors are great! How long did it take to get to this point?
Thanks for the encouragement! I haven't been keeping track of time. It's been at most a few hours a week since November. So maybe 25 hours, more or less? The beginning was quite fun, because each round went quickly. I find buying, washing, and snipping quite tedious, but I just do a bit at a time. I think I'm out of "winter white" right now, so it may be time for a break. (I love that name -- I had been calling it cream, until a friend who's my age reminded me what we called it in the 1980s.)
Great rug! I've always wanted to make a braided rug, ever since I read about them in my Laura Ingalls Wilder books! I'll just have to give it a go one day.
Every cool rug!! Awesome that it is created form recycled materials!!
chelle
My mother warned me about making round rugs! She was right. Mine turned out like a huge sombrero, probably because my knots are too tight. Anyhow, I think this is beautiful. I hope you join my Flickr group!
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