Rag rugs | susies-scraps.com

Crochet Floor Rugs – Updated

Following on from this post.

Crochet floor rugs? Of course you might wonder, in this day and age what would possess a person to want to make their own floor rugs? Madness? Surely there are plenty of things out there to use. Just buy something!

Well I did. So that is what inspired this journey, some years back. Remember when they introduced those adorably soft microfibre mats, for your bathroom. Put your feet on them – so soft. And I should mention non slip. So I was tempted and purchased some of these thinking they were great. I washed them a few times and that was okay. Then one day, to my disgust, I went to pick the mat off the floor and it was as if overnight, it had disintegrated. I couldn’t believe it. It (I should say they) over time, had glued themselves to the floor. The rubber had broken down into a sticky thick glue like substance which had cemented itself to the floor.

This is the age of built in redundancy after all. Extremely tedious. It took me some considerable time to remove that rubbery glue from the floor. Several attempts on hands and knees to remove it, hours of time. Thats not very efficient.

So that was my motivation. I began to think – surely, surely – there must be something better.

So here is the criteria. It had to be soft, thick, absorbent, a reasonable size, and not move around the floor or scrunch up like a bath mat, and importantly be washable, lasting, and a joy to walk on. Then I thought, what did people do in the past. So that’s when I began to look into the hand made ones.

There are different ways of doing this, some are made from a weave and weft, which I tried and is very good, but the mat was harder and because of the way its done, with a hooking device, a bit more time consuming (actually a lot) and I don’t think it made a better product. Some people like to make hooked rugs but then a base is required to to hook the fibres through. But to crochet with recycled fabric, makes an excellent floor rug, and once you get going, doesn’t take that long. (I’m thinking less time than it took to get the cemented rubber off the floor.)

I think it’s like a quilt for the floor. Some people consider them to be heirlooms, like quilts. They certainly have the capacity to last a lifetime.

Making the fabric yarn for the floor rugs is not difficult. If possible, take the sheets, quilt covers or whichever recycled linen you decide to use, outside. (See previous post – Whats in the linen cupboard? ) Use scissors to snip the seam edges and tear them all off. Snip along the top edge in 2″ increments. I don’t measure, just eyeball it. If unsure use a tape measure. Then tear down the snip lines to make the strips. My favoured method of joining the strips is to make a longitudinal cut about half an inch from each end of each strip, approximately 1″ long. Begin to wind up the first strip folded in half, lengthwise, right side out. Don’t worry about the raw edges, they become irrelevant one the fabric yarn is crocheted. Then add the next strip on top of end of first strip. both strips right side facing up.

Feed up the free end of the new strip from underneath through both strips the pull and the two become joined. Wind onto the ball and then add next strip until all are joined.

The rugs I have made are crocheted in basic chain stitch using a very large crochet hook. (A great TV project) The beginning is the hardest and may take a few attempts, but don’t give up.

Remember, maybe don’t go too large, as it may not fit into the washing machine. A good rule of thumb is – however many sheets can normally comfortably fit into the washing machine, is about the amount that can be crocheted into floor rugs. The weight of the fabric means it doesn’t slip around on the floor that readily. Think about it. If you drop 3 – 4 sheets on the floor, they don’t move too much.