This is #2 in a series of blog posts called A Year of Tiny Improvements.
This week I am finally giving up on some old clothes which are beyond worn out and trying to find a better use for them.
It takes a lot for me to finally give up on a favourite item of clothing, as evidenced by the state of most of my jeans, and by the state of these leggings. However, in the case of these leggings (and a couple of other pairs) it was finally time to relinquish them. Although I’ve mended several holes over the years, at this point the elsatic has totally gone so patching them wouldn’t even improve the situation much.
Instead, I’m cutting up these items into strips for use in a future rag rug. I’ll have to keep collecting rags for a while until I’m ready to made my eventual rug, but that’s okay.
I’m planning to make a rug using hundreds of 10cm strips of fabric pulled through and knotted over the square mesh of a rug pad. A rug pad (I never knew what these things were called) is a slip-proof mesh material which most people buy to stick onto the back of an existing rug to stop it slipping on the floor. However, the mesh can also be used as the frame, if you like, for a tassle-style rag rug.
There are also lots of other ways to make a rag rug, such as braiding or sewing strips of fabric together, but I thought it would be more versatile for me to collect shorter strips to make my rug this way. I have all sorts of pieces of fabric offcuts and odds and ends which won’t all be able to make long strips for braiding (without lots of sewing together) so this method seemed like less work… maybe.
I’ll let you know how the rug goes when I finally have enough strips to make it!
