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Whether we like it or not, we always have a bunch of stuff to throw away. Something went out of fashion, became small or large, lost its appearance or became dilapidated in places. It is not necessary to throw everything away. Most of the accumulated old things can be used for needlework, for example, you can make a rug. Moreover, “old things” is a rather large list: towels, T-shirts, jeans, sheets, tights, socks…
Techniques and methods
What you can make a rug from is already clear – from almost any old thing. The main thing is that they should be made of the same material (knitwear, terry, plain fabric …) or not quite the same, but of the same thickness and stiffness. It is more difficult to work with materials of different textures. And it’s even harder to predict the outcome. It can turn out very beautiful and original, or maybe not very …
Colors can be different or the same range – this is a matter of taste.
How can you make your own rug? Depends on what you’re good at. There are several different techniques that can be applied to make a handmade rug. It can be:
- To tie:
- crochet;
- knitting needles.
- Sew.
- to weave
- Use weaving techniques.
When using different methods, we get a different result – the appearance of the products is different. You can start with what you know or try a new technique. There are no special difficulties, all the tricks are “for beginners”. All you need is time, desire and a little patience.
Preparing material for a knitted or woven rug
Weaving, weaving and knitting have one thing in common – these methods require threads. Therefore, first of all, we make threads or yarn from our old things – they call it differently. It’s not difficult, but it takes quite a lot of time.
How to cut
With sheets, terry towels, everything is relatively simple. We cut (or tear) them into strips of the same width. The optimal strip width is 1 cm for denser fabrics (terry, fleece, etc.), for thinner fabrics 1,5-2,5 cm.
From one T-shirt you can get several meters of yarn. Next, you will have to connect strips cut from different T-shirts. Here’s what we do:
- Cut off the lower thickened edge and the part with the sleeves and neck. We get a “pipe” from knitwear. Sometimes it has seams, sometimes it doesn’t.
- Fold along the seams (or just fold in half). We cut the resulting rectangle into strips 1-3 cm wide, without cutting 3-5 cm on one side (photo below on the left). The width of the stripes should be the same (or almost the same).
Making knitted yarn from T-shirts - Unfold so that the uncut part is on top.
- Now you need to obliquely cut the gaps. It will be clearer if you look at the photo above on the right. We simply cut off the first strip obliquely, then cut from one strip to another.
It turns out a fairly long strip of fabric. We roll it into a ball. You will need a lot of such balls. How much exactly is unknown. It depends on the size of the things being cut, on the technique, on the size of the rug you want to make.
How to sew stripes
Knitting rugs from old things does not involve stripes, but a long thread. The strips of fabric we have must be connected. Fabric can be sewn obliquely:
- We apply the strips one to one, cut off the edge at 45 °.
- We fold as in the photo below, at a distance of 0,5-1 cm from the edge we sew.
We sew strips for a homemade rug from old things - Expanding. There should be a straight, even strip (photo above on the right).
With this method, the seam is located obliquely, when the strip is twisted, it turns out not too rough and thick. If you connect exactly, it will be much thicker and more difficult to work with. You can sew by hand or on a sewing machine – there is not much difference. There will be no load on the seam, so you can do it with your hands.
We connect without sewing
The resulting stripes of knitwear, jeans can be knitted into one thread. Ordinary knots do not fit – they are too rough and interfere with work, and they will be too noticeable and palpable underfoot. There are two connection methods that are much less noticeable.
Both methods begin in the same way: on two strips to be joined, stepping back from the edge of 1 cm, we make an incision also about 1 cm long. But then there are already differences. In the first variant, we impose the edges of two strips, aligning the transverse cuts (Fig. 1). We pass one of the free ends through the incisions (Fig. 2) and tighten the loop. It turns out a small knot, which practically does not interfere with work (Fig. 3).
When connecting knitted yarn in the second way, the connection is even less noticeable. We pass the side with a longitudinal incision of one strip through the slot into the other. We don’t stretch it too much – 3-5 cm is enough (Fig. 2). Now, through the free hole, we stretch a strip of a different color. It turns out not too much compaction, which does not interfere with weaving / knitting (Fig. 3).
As you can see, nothing complicated, but it all takes time. It takes as much to prepare as it does to work.
Weaving a rug from fabric strips
One of the options for how to make a rug is to weave. The simplest is to weave a braid from the threads, and form a rug of the desired shape from it. For beginners, this is the easiest way. You will need yarn prepared from knitwear or fabric, a large needle and thread for assembly.
Square shape with fringes
Weaving a pigtail is not easy, but very simple. From three stripes weave braids. If you want it to be like in the photo below on the right, leave the edges of 5-7 centimeters on both sides, fix the beginning and end. You can first fix three harnesses with a couple of stitches. Not necessarily perfect, just to keep everything together.
For such a rug as in the photo above, pigtails of the same length are required. Weave the first one and use it as a template. When the required number of braids is typed, fold them and, using a large needle and thread, sew one to the other.
The final part is a seam along the edges along the “brushes”. It is better to do it with a contrasting thick thread. You can – a thread for knitting. And to make the brushes look better, they can be cut into thin strips.
Round and oval
From a fabric pigtail, you can make both a round (“circle”) and an oval rug. But for a round one, you need to weave a braid a few meters long, then twist it into the rug you need and fasten it. In the photo below you can see two stitching methods. The first one is secret. A rug sewn in this way will be double-sided, as the threads remain inside. By sewing in the second way, the rug will have a front and back side.
There is another option – to weave and collect at the same time. That is, they wove, for example, a meter, fixed it near the last link so that the braid would not unravel, twisted it as you need, sewed it. Removed the latch, wove, twisted, sewn. And so on until you get the right size rug. As a fixer, it is convenient to use large metal clips (clothespins) for papers.
If you need to make an oval rug from knitted braids, everything is exactly the same, just start wrapping a straight section of a woven braid a few centimeters long. The longer this segment, the more elongated the shape will be. When making an oval rug, you will have to weave a braid during the assembly process: for turns (especially at the beginning) you need a special technique (see photo below).
When you go through a couple of rows, you can already just wrap the braid. The turn will be smooth. But the first two will definitely need to be done as shown above. The same technique will help you when weaving a rectangular rug – you need to start it the same way. The difference is that when turning, you try to make a right angle, and not a rounding. And already in the second row, there will be two turns of 90 ° on each side.
How to finish weaving a rug
You can beautifully complete the weaving of the rug, if the last 30-40 cm make the braid tighter – it will turn out thinner. At half of the final segment, you can cut off part of the width of the thread along the oblique, reducing its size towards the ends. This will result in an even smoother decrease in the diameter of the yarn.
At the very end, cut the edge so that the shreds are of different lengths – with a difference of about 0,5 cm. Grab each of the strips separately. There is a smooth finish.
Round crochet rug for beginners
You will need the largest hook you can find in the store.
If there are familiar craftsmen, you can ask to make a wooden hook. It just needs to be sanded down to a smooth finish. In Soviet times, hooks for knitting rugs were made from large nails – a hook was turned with a file.
You can knit a rug if you are able to master even a single technique – a single crochet. There are several options for using this technique alone.
- Use the threads you made for knitting. To keep the edges from curling, add posts regularly. This means that two must be knitted into one previous one. How often to add? Depends on the density of your knitting. Through 3, or through 5 columns. Make sure that the product lies flat on the table, does not bend.
How to crochet rugs from old things. Make yarn out of them, and then … - Tie some kind of cord with your “knitting yarn.” A clothesline or other thread made by you can act as a cord. From the same material or from a denser one.
It is possible without a hook. We make a loop with our hands, we stretch the thread through it “Tie up” is still the same single crochet. But you can do without a hook. We pass the binding thread through the loop of the previous row, we wind it under the main thread, making a loop, and tighten it.
- Tie our thread with knitting thread, jute thread, silk thread, etc. Even with the same basic, there will be a different look.
Another way is to tie with threads. They can be contrasting, neutral or “in tone”, or in tone with the next thread …
There are probably several more ways to knit rugs from homemade knitting yarn. In fact, the process is very creative and each time a new result is obtained. Even if you want to repeat “as it was” is not always possible. Something is different.
Do-it-yourself wicker rugs from old things: weaving techniques
There are interesting ideas for making homemade rugs and carpets in weaving. For this technique, you need a frame on which the warp threads are stretched. The warp is then woven with cross threads. In professional jargon – ducks.
Depending on how to bind, the result changes. The easiest way is plain weave (the middle picture above). This is when we alternately stretch the transverse thread either above the warp thread or under it. The next row – change the order so that where it was “under”, it becomes “above” and vice versa. So we get the simplest woven fabric. This is what our great-great-grandmothers did on winter evenings.
What can be the basis? Rectangle made of wooden planks stuffed with carnations. Just drive in the cloves so that the sharp ends do not protrude. Instead of nails, there can be self-tapping screws, but with a long smooth part under the cap. And the heads are better semicircular – so that they do not interfere with work.
The most “modern look” is obtained by mixing denim stripes and jute threads. The stripes are taken as a basis, they are pulled tightly one to the other, and they are twisted with jute threads only to create a relief. Compared to our “yarn” they are very thin. But it is this effect that looks interesting and modern.
How to weave a round rug
From the slats, you can make the base of any shape except round. As a basis for a round rug, we can take a plastic or metal gymnastic hoop. Do not worry, it will not remain “in the carpet” – it is needed only at the manufacturing stage.
We stretch the warp threads on the hoop. They should be placed more often – the density will decrease towards the edges, and we need it to be a dense rug, not a sieve. And one more thing: there should be an odd number of “rays” so that there are no problems when moving to the next row.
In the center of the interweaving of all threads (warp) we fix the worker. Let’s start with plain weave. When you feel that the canvas is getting too loose, you can add a second thread (as in the photo above on the right). In this case, the basis, as it were, is covered by two workers. They can be the same color or different.
Completion – trimming the base near the frame. There are “tails” that we tie with a double knot. You can also sew for reliability. The remaining segments can be hidden “in the body” of the rug, or can be turned into a fringe by adding a similar “noodle” along the edge. How to tie a fringe? According to the technique of weaving the “grass” rug.
Rug-grass handmade
Again, a very simple way to make homemade carpets and rugs such as “grass”. You will need a mesh base. It is also called a “net for knitting rugs.” You can buy it at a craft store. And you can use any grid with a cell of a suitable size. At least the fishing one, at least the one that goes to shade the yard. The cell pitch is greater the thicker your yarn is.
This technique requires small strips of fabric of the same length. How long? Depends on how high your “weed” will be. If you want the pile to be 3 cm, make cuts 7-8 cm long. If 4 cm, then 9-10 cm. In general, the length of the strips should be slightly longer than twice the height of the pile of your carpet.
How to do it: fold the strip in half, put the fold under the base, stretch it into one of the cells, thread both free ends into the resulting loop. That’s all the technology. You can do all this with your fingers, but it may be more convenient for someone to crochet. In this technique, it works better if the shreds are thin and there are a lot of them.
How to sew a rug from old things
Another way to make rugs from old things is to sew. If you have a sewing machine, this is not a problem at all. And even better if she can sew in a zigzag or any other connecting stitch. If you don’t have a sewing machine, you’ll have to sew by hand. It takes longer, but it’s also possible.
One of the best results comes from jeans. Any parts can be used. You can stitch stripes, squares, rectangles, rhombuses, hexagons and any other shape. You can weave a rug from strips and then sew. The result is in the photo above in the middle.
A round rug can be sewn by cutting out sectors. The more of them, the more interesting. And there should be more flowers too. An oval, multifaceted rug can be made from hexagons. It will turn out no less interesting from octahedrons.
Don’t throw away the belts either. Or pockets. They also make original items. And making them is easy. All you need is a sewing machine that can sew thick fabrics. But such a rug will last a long time: jeans are known for their durability.
Chair circle
The technology of knitting rugs is also suitable for the manufacture of small circles, which are well suited as bedding on a chair or stool. Since cloth yarn of small diameter is required, the central part can be knitted from ordinary yarn – this is exactly what our grandmothers and great-grandmothers often did in Soviet times.