Friday, June 25, 2010

Stash Reduction Rag Rugs


I am on a stash reduction mission.  I have so much fabric in my stash, from other people and stuff that I bought that I need to make some space to work.  I tried selling some at a garage sale, but that wasn't too successful, so rag rugs should help get rid of some of it.

I own a nice book about making rag rugs (shown below),

 so I've been using it for some ideas.  I liked the idea of sewing strips a set length together to make a diamond pattern, like the photo from the book (below):

I'm still playing around with the length of strips that will work the best, since my warp on the loom isn't the same width as the one in the book.  My first try wasn't with long enough strips, so the colors didn't advance enough. 

The color change remained at the edges, and I didn't like the look.  My next try was with strips that were about 4" longer than the first try, but I don't like that much better.  I think I have to have a lot shorter pieces, with the total of them being about twice the width in the reed plus 3-5". 


I will probably try that tomorrow after I get home from work. 

I did a couple things differently when preparing my strips.  I found that 3" wide strips worked the best.  I also didn't want to butt the ends together and zig-zag them.  I prefer a seam on the diagonal
 
as I'm demonstrating.  Place the two strips at right angles, and then stitch from corner to corner.  It reduces the bulk of the seam so it isn't all in one spot, and will be more secure than a butt join.

I'm too tired to work on this any more tonight, so I will wait till tomorrow and then unweave what I have tested and recut the lengths.