Denim Rag Rugs

Project Number Two goes back to something that I made a lot of back in the day - Rag Rugs.  Over the years I have accumulated a fair number of Handwoven Magazines.  Some from the early 80's and some recent sporadic purchases.  Looking through the editions for inspiration, making a rug from old blue jeans, sounded like a good second step.  Bigger project, but still pretty easy to warp and set up.  What I hadn't counted on was accumulating, cutting and sewing all those old jeans.  Fortunately, I was able to score old jeans for 50 cents a pair at the local thrift shop.  That just left cutting them into 1 inch strips and sewing the strips together.  I looked into purchasing a rag cutter, but the price of that was pretty steep.  Instead I borrowed a rotary cutter and mat used for cutting quilting squares and the cutting got a whole lot easier.

Date Finished January 2012

Loom  Newcombe

Weave Structure plain

Reed  12 epi

Warp     Fiber 8/4 cotton

              Count 1600 yds/#

              Color Natural

              Mfr Maysville

              Source  Earthguild

Warp     Width in Reed  24 1/4"

              Ends  290

              Length  5 1/2 yds - for 1 rug and 1 wall hanging.  Used about 1.2 pounds of warp

Weft      Fiber  blue jean rags

              Count  1" strips

              Color

              Mfr

              Source

Beat                       50/50                     

Size

Notes  For the rug, could have used 8 epi instead of 12.  Add darker warp instead of all natural.