A Riff on the Rag Rug
Introduction: A Riff on the Rag Rug
The idea of using scraps/leftover fabric to create a rag rug is nothing new. I have made a couple of braided rugs with quilting cotton leftovers which were hand stitched together. I love them, but I am not about to put them in high traffic areas because they took quite a bit of time and energy to create, and I don't love the idea of a hand stitched item that took many, many hours to create getting dingy or dirty. I realize that is a bit silly when I am talking about a rug that lives on the floor, but it's how I feel!
But I was in need of new rugs, and I do love the idea of a hand made rug, just maybe something a little less precious. I had previously knit two rugs for the kitchen area which started to look a little worse for wear, and I wasn't totally in love with them; I also needed a larger rug for the living room.
I cannot recall when I first came across a Jelly Roll Rug, but once I saw one, my mind wouldn't let go of the idea that this was the perfect solution.
Supplies
Quilting Cotton
Cotton Batting
Large Quilting Ruler to mark your strips
Fabric Pen
Sewing Machine with the ability to z
Thread (you will need a lot of it - make sure you have a few bobbins ready to go!)
Walking Foot (optional, but super helpful)
Needles, heavy duty to be able to manage four layers of batting + the cotton
Step 1: Preparing the Strips
I started small, with the idea to replace the dog bowl rug in the kitchen area.
An actual Jelly Roll was not used since the idea was to use up fabric scraps that I had on hand. I gathered scraps of fabric that I thought would look nice together, purchased a few small cuts of quilting cotton in a similar color palette to make sure I had enough, and ripped my 2.5" wide strips along the cross grain. Cotton batting was cut into 2.25" wide strips.
I started at the ironing board and wrapped the batting in my cotton strips. 929
Eventually, this got old, and I decided that the ironing step was unnecessary. From that point, I just folded the layers together at the sewing machine, first folding either end toward center, and then in half again.
The strips get stitched together along the open edge. A walking foot comes in handy for this process to keep those layers from shifting under the feed dogs, but it is certainly not required.
Step 2: The Mini Rug
For the first design, I used my 42" wide strips laid side to side in an order that I found pleasing.
There was no need to join the ends of the fabric/batting tubes since the 42" minus the trimmed selvedge ends was going to be wide enough for my rug.
Those individual strips were then laid side by side and zig zagged together, one at a time, until the rug was the intended size. For ease of sewing, make sure to add your new strip to the right of the growing rug so that you have only a single strip under the arm of the machine. With a smaller rug this is not so much of an issue, but as they get larger, you won't want to fight all of that bulk under the arm of the machine.
To finish the sides, I just used a plain strip of fabric (minus the batting) and bound the edges. It's not perfectly rectangular, but it certainly works, and I think it looks rather pretty!
It's the perfect rug for under the dog dishes since it's easy to clean and will absorb any spilled water.
Step 3:
Of course, once I made the first one, I wanted a larger version to replace the boring gray rug in the living room. That was definitely going to need more than the 42" strips, so I needed to join at least some of the ends.
Once I came up with a color/print order, I joined the seams along the bias, trimming the excess off after I had a long chain of 2.5" wide fabric.
The next step was to wrap the fabric around more cotton batting until I had a big ball of fabric rope.
The idea for this rug was to make it into a half circle shape, or something similar; large enough to fit the coffee table, but rounded at one end to save on fabric. Strip by strip, I zig zagged them together.
Well, my sewing machine table is set against a wall, and once the rug began to grow, it was a struggle to manage the bulk behind my machine. 316