How To Crochet A Rug

This rug is easy to make and so cottage cozy comfy! I made rugs for both of my girls' rooms. Sessie and Talia share a room and Tera gets one all to herself. Lucky girl...privileges of the first born. The rooms are the same size but Talia and Sessie's room has two separate closets, bunk beds and they each have their very own armoire.  

The rugs I bought them a while back....welllll...were a little threadbare so I moved them to the garden.  Yep I use worn out cotton rugs in the garden underneath the mulch.  They suppress weeds great!  Beats just throwing them away!

Any ol' way....This rug is made up of old sheets, blankets, material and anything else, cut into 1 1/2 inch strips.  I've seen descriptions how to make this on the Internet, and they required carefully cutting the strips evenly then sewing the ends together on the bias....my eyes go cross with that kind of stuff.  I love Mary Jane Butters and her book "MaryJane's Stitching Room".  She does away with all that perfection stuff and gets right to making really awesome fun rugs.

This is basically how you make them:

First Cut up a bunch of sheets, blankets, fabric, etc...into 1 1/2 inch strips.  (Don't try to make them perfect.  Just as even as you can.  Even fabric that frays a little adds character to the rug.)
Hint From Kristi:  Fold the large piece of fabric, sheet, blanket etc.. in half and stitch one side closed to form a tube.  Then begin cutting from the top and go in a spiral pattern cutting the fabric into one giant 1 1/2 inch strip.  Otherwise you must cut a slit on each end of each strip and pull one strip through the end of another and then through slit on the other end to join them.  That's confusing...I know.  Or you must sew each end of a strip to the end of another to join them.  Sewing one big seam makes much more sense.  Sigh...are you confused yet?

Anyways...Next...you get a large crochet hook.  Or whittle one from a piece of wood yourself.  That's what I did!  I whittled it from a piece of cypress my honey gave me.  It's not too pretty, but I love it!

Then you crochet about 10 single chains..or more if you want the oval longer.  Next double back and chain two stitches into the end and then go down the side stitching single chains back into the rug.

Start circling around the edges adding extra stitches at the rounded ends as needed to expand and make the rug lie flat.

So easy and fun...but warning...it takes muscles to man handle the heavy rug around.  Another hint is to keep your stitches on the loose side.  This makes it easier to handle.

Anyone who is better at expressing crochet terms and knows what I'm talking about...Feel free to comment and add to this or correct me!

The rug in the beginning.  See the big ball of fabric strips ready to go!

Close up of my awesome personally whittled cypress crochet hook!

Hey hey...this rug is progressing!

Here's the one I made to go beside Tera's bed.  Ummm...I know it's uneven.  I wasn't that great then.  But Hey!  I'm better now!  and Tera still likes it.

Flossie likes this rug.

Flossie REALLY likes this rug.

So Do's I!