Rag rugs are perfect for reinventing old fabric remnants and turning them into something functional, durable, and beautiful. A way to do this yourself is to braid various strips of fabric, then coil them together, and weave or sew these pieces into a flat spiral. The end result can be whatever you want it to be. This is what I feel is the beauty of rag rugs: the final product is only limited by your imagination and the fabric remnants you have available.For my projects, however, I use new fabric in 100 percent cotton, woven on floor looms. This fabrication is durable, colorfast, and machine washable. Also, using new fabrics as opposed to remnants yields a consistent end-result, which is important when you do as much custom work as I do.
The pictured project was made for a client who wanted a rag rug for the master bedroom of her Nantucket vacation home. I worked closely with the client’s interior designers, Becky Wein and Holly Amsterdam of Wein Interiors in Wayne, PA on the style and color scheme. We wanted to get the look and feel of a Nantucket fall landscape perfectly right for the sunny bedroom in this beautiful vacation home. The final product measured eight by fourteen feet, and was woven out of seven two- by eight-foot strips of fabric, including cotton, various strips of printed material, and silk accent pieces. You can take a look at the photo gallery below to see my process.
