Making a rag rug

How I spent my Sunday afternoon...doing some of my favorite things; reading magazines and creating!

I have such a HUGE fabric stash, I decided to try my hand at turning some of my fabric into some rag rugs for our house.

I have found several methods to make them, but since I crochet, I decided to try that method first.

Using a "P" crochet hook for this project.The only stitches involved with this are chain and single crochet. I am not a great teacher, but here is my quick tutorial for you.

I pulled some random fabrics from my stash. No rhyme or reason, just pulled some that I though there was enough of to make enough strips to make it around the rug a couple to a few times.

I cut my strips at about 1.5 inches in width. I just used two fingers as a guide for the first few snips, then "eyeballed" the rest.

I tore complete yardage pieces into a pile of strips so they would all be ready to use.

This video was quite helpful. I also enjoyed her introduction.


I did not make mine the exact 27 chain stitches as in the video above, I don't remember how many I did, but it doesn't really matter. The size is all up to you.

The corners are not as complicated or tricky as I anticipated without having an exact pattern to follow. I found that if I needed to "stretch" to get to the next strip, it was time to do 2 single croc
het stitches to increase.

These are two rugs I made from vintage bed sheets.

 
***I love your comments! Thank you for letting me know you stopped by! Please know that I read each and every comment left, though I am not always able to respond to each one, I do when I am able.***

Repurposed Feed Bag = Tote Bag

The livestock feed companies have begun using that plastic-y paper for the feed bags now. I have a love-hate relationship with that stuff. It is not easily recycle-able and does not break down well in landfills. BUT with just a little bit of sewing know-how, you can turn them into reusable tote or grocery bags.

Source: Dilly Dollop

I love the Purina Layena bags! Did you know that in October, their blue bag is pink instead, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month? Talk about making into a great bag with that sack!

Any feed sack will work for this, but the plastic-y paper is going to be what you are looking for to make the totes.  Imagine taking these to the grocery functioning as reusable grocery sacks! Turn some heads, eh?

When you make some of these, be sure to head over to our Facebook page and share some photos!

Feed Sack Reusable Tote Bag

Why use paper towels?

Do you use paper towels? Here's a tidbit of information you might find interesting.

As I was reading Diana's blog, she posted this:

"The following facts have been floating around in the twittering/blogging world. Check them out.

Fact: About 900,000,000 trees are required to feed America's paper consumption each year, according to the Clean Air council.

Fact: With over 90% of US households taking the advantage of the convenience of paper towels, we produce over 3,000 tons of waste each day."

PAPER TOWELS! Good grief! That's insane! We've used cloth napkins in our house for over 10 years, just because I prefer cloth to paper. I even try to use re-usable wipes for cleaning up messes, etc. I do buy paper towels, but only for the messiest of messes. One roll of paper towels can last us a month or more. I'd love to give them up for good, eventually.

I make my own re-usable (un)paper towels by cutting 12x12 inch pieces of flannel and just serging around the edges. That's it. They last forever! I keep a stack by my kitchen sink and use them as I used to use paper towels. The only time I use paper towels is for really yucky messes, such as draining greasy foods. I just toss them in the wash with the towels. I buy flannel when it is on sale really cheap, or when I can find remnants.

Do you use paper towels? Do these statistics surprise you? I wonder if there will be any tree left on our Earth for my grand-children or great grand-children?

Take a look around on this link, you just may be surprised.

Ten Things You Should Never Buy