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.

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

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. 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.

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.

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. There is a rippled portion, the rows are not entirely straight, and I had to trim more of the edges than I wanted to, making this much too small for the living room. The only good thing was that it was the perfect size to replace the other knitted rug in the kitchen.

So, not an entirely successful project when considering the original intention, but I think it has charm, and it does work in the space.

But I wasn't over the fact that I wanted a pretty rug to replace the boring gray one that was living under my living room couch and coffee table. So a couple of weeks later, I was back at it, making an extremely large fabric rope ball for my next rug.

This time, I decided to go for an oblong circular shape which is what most Jelly Roll Rugs look like. This one was just going to use more fabric and be somewhat larger. Starting with an elongated coil, I zig zagged the ball of fabric rope together in a circular pattern. With this version, there are no strips, just one continuous length of fabric/batting that winds around to create the rug.

And that's where things went wrong. I love my colors, and I love the idea, but fighting with an ever growing rug in a small space, with a back wall to contend with, and the weigh of the rug dropping off the side of the table every chance it got was not an easy thing. But I was determined to get through.

I was ironing everything flat at each turn, and checking that it was laying flat for the first bunch of rows, until the floor space in the sewing room could no longer accommodate the growing rug, nor could my standard ironing board. I stuck it out, hoping that I could iron the thing into submission once I was finished. But once I brought it downstairs to iron on the floor with some old towels laid down, I saw what a huge problem I had. No amount of steam or starch or a combination of both was going to get this thing to lay flat. So I had a hissy fit and ripped the whole thing apart. And then I put the fabric ball away.

A few days later I was still glaring at the discarded rope when a thought crossed my mind. People without an extra sewing room use the dining room table as a temporary sewing table all the time; in fact, I used to do the same thing. I am so very grateful to have a dedicated space, but in this case, I though the extra room just might save this project. So I cleared everything off the table, brought the sewing machine down, and pulled out a bunch of books to give myself a semi flat working space. Best of all, no wall to fight directly behind the machine! It looks rather ridiculous, but it works.

That is not to say it wasn't a lot of effort fighting this monster as she grew larger and larger. The finished measurements are 67" x 40". I am not sure how many 42" strips are in this rug, but I think there are considerably more than 40 of them (the standard Jelly Roll number, I believe).

Everything was going fairly well until the last few yards of fabric rope. Then the machine started acting up. Grrrrr. I suspect that my needle had enough and perhaps bent slightly. Well, I got myself a new one and started again, only to have it break as I was pushing the end under. I suppose I may have been stitching too fast for the added thickness. Well, a third needle was employed to get through the last few inches of the project. I gave her a final press, pulled the towel out, and weighted her down with books for a few hours, hoping for the best.

Miraculously, I have a useable rug! There is a little bit of waviness at the center, but overall, I am calling this a win.

And, most importantly, the ugly gray rug is gone! I am still convinced that hand sewing on a flat surface is the only real way to keep a larger sized rug completely flat, but I am very happy that this project turned out as well as it did in the end.

And I love my little trio of hand made rugs! They are rather addictive to make once you get going . . .