A Rug In The Making

Well, this one is going to be quite a PROJECT!

So far I've cut, braided, and sewed by hand for about 4 hours straight and all I have to show, after all that, is the very little this,

 I'm sad, :o( and my fingers have blisters. But I LOVE the look so far! 

My hope is that I can come up with enough scrap fabric to make a rug big enough to put under my bed that will stick out maybe 2 feet all the way around. That is my hope, but I'm not sure how far that will get me :o)  I may make it a bit gradually as my fingers let me. 

I've had all these t-shirts that I've been saving for so long, knowing that there would be something amazing to make one day. And now I am so glad that I did! I always feel guilty for all the piles of good stuff, but still stuff that I sometimes have laying around for days, or months :o) just knowing that I will use it one day. The guilt is only there until I finally start whatever project that will come of all those loose pieces, and then there is this wonderful feeling of accomplishment and pride that I did it. I did make something from pieces of nothing. It would never have been done if I hadn't saved that one little scrap for the last 3 years. Ok maybe not. But I do love using up all my leftovers and then getting to make things for free! 

Back to the rug. 

I've been saving all these clothes and scraps that people have given me, knowing that I wanted to do this when I had enough. I wanted to stay kinda in the same colors. Pink, blue, brown, white and purple. Not so much in the yellows and reds. So once I had a good bit to start with, I cut all my strips and started braiding. At first I tied the pieces together and tried to braid, but everything was getting tangled faster than I could braid it. So I cut a small slit at the end of each strip to loop the next piece through so I could add as I went. Then I saw on youtube (sorry, I don't know where now) how you can just fold the two pieces together as you're braiding and that's secure enough. So I started doing that, and once I had a very long braid, I started sewing the rug together and was very surprised that it was taking me FOREVER to make any progress! Then I saw on youtube how to sort of weave the thread or twine or whatever you're using through the space between the braid with a very big and blunt needle and not have to push a needle through sometimes-very-tough fabric and kill your fingers. Before I started doing this, I had switched to using pliers to pull the needle through because of my blisters :o(  I should have taken pictures of them to show off. Anyway, I'm sure things will start moving much faster now, and I'm sure I will have a few more updates before the rug is  finished.
Here I am still braiding while a friend is over to craft with me.

I was sewing so you wouldn't see any stitches from the front.

4 hours in :o(

But soft and cushy already :o)

Here I switched to Pliers.

I'll show next time how I go through the loop part of the braid and how far that takes me. 

Until next time... :o)