Rag Rug or Quilt - Using Old Clothing or Material

This is a good idea if you have the room to store the scrap material pieces, and the knowledge and time to make these rugs....maybe when my kids get older, I can take this up as a hobby, I love to use something you would get rid of and turn it into something useful.....it makes me feel better. Do you have a pattern, or how to instructions for this. This does sound very useful!

My mother made me a ragrug when I was in high school. For the life of me I can't remember where I put it, but I loved it. It was peach and sea foam green. My mother is the crafty one in our family. It's so funny because she has my 9 year old niece doing crafts with her. My niece crocheted a blanket for my son to come home in after he was born.

Hi WOW! DO they still do that! I remember my Mum doing that 50 Years ago! Many a day we would sit and tear up the pieces of material so that she could make a rug or quilt!! WOW! Brings back a lot of memories!

Great idea. As usual, you have so much to offer your friends at MyLot. We need to give you some kind of award. Thanks dear.

I would love a homemade quilt but I'm certainly not talented enough to do it myself. I have seen where people get them as gifts and the quilter has used pieces of baby clothing, favorite old sweater, stuff like that. Boy that would be so nice to have. But I do have to say I am not a packrat. When my husband and I split up 2 years ago I decided to pull out boxes of stuff and get rid of a lot. I did it through freecycle and it felt so good to get rid of stuff I wasn't using or hadn't used in ages. So to get back to your question no I'm not a packrat. LOL I can't visualize what you mean by a rag rug??? Maybe I'll have to search on the net and see if there are any pictures.

My my my, I guess all mothers do know best. I am definetly a packrat when it comes to material. I buy it even when I don't need it just in case I ever do. I make 1-2 quilts a year and love every minute of it. Its a calming hobby and when you give the quilt that you made to someone it is amazing how they react. I have made one that is in Russia ,I donated it to my brother to take with him on his missionary trip to Moldvia and he gave the quilt to a young couple who was both raised in the same orphane home and were now newly weds. Now did that make me happy. Lifeiseasy

Have you ever made a braided rug? They're fun to make and you make them from old clothes. Just cut them in strips, sew the strips together and braid three strips to make a very long braid. Then you just sew the braids together in whatever shape you want. That's a great way to reuse old clothing and the rugs can be beautiful, too.

I didn't know about the rag rugs, but I have made quilts from clothing, I did one recently for my husband out of his grandparents clothes, pretty much a little something to remember them after they passed on, thanks for the very useful post :) ++++'s for you lol

My mother liked to quilt, but I never learned how. I like the idea of being able to do it on the sewing machine. Have you ever seen a "tied" quilt, I think it is called...where there is a little hand-tied knot at each square corner? OH brother! My attention span is just not up to that! And I don't even think I could finish a quilt top before I got tired of it. I was always really bad about starting two or 3 projects before finishing the first one. I think I'd be much worse now that I don't want to spend too much time on it. LOL If I ever did decide to do this, I have a whole box full of cotton dress prints by the yard that I got from my sister a few years back. I probably have enough to make many quilts!

I most certainly hope you are carrying out this tradition, or at least considering it. This is NOT simply a tradition Butterfly. This is the beginning of you Remembering. You are Remembering who you Are. You are Beginning a wonderful Journey. Start saving those pieces of clothing and imbue each piece with love as you handle it. More and more will you Remember as you go along. May your Journey be Blessed ~Donna

Good gracious do people still make rag rugs ?? I can't remember the last time I saw one .. I know we had a lot of them when I was a child .. I seem to remember my grandad made a lot of them .. he would get sort out hundreds of 2" x 1" long strips of cloth .. getting all the colours he wanted to make up a picture .. then using some sacking or canvas he would push the little strips folded in half through the holes in the backing .. level the strips and then pull the free ends through the loop to secure each strip .. Goodness knows how long it must have taken him to do a hearth rug but they were very much in demand .. he used to make some wonderful pictures up .. animals, country scenes, patterns or whatever folks asked him to make .. they must have been a labour of love .. I never dared to tread on those rag rugs .. I knew how long it had taken him to make one .. it's a shame they seem to have disappeared nowadays as they were very strong and lasted for years and years ..

This the BEST post I have seen on Mylot so far, for me. I love all of these ideas. This is a great way to recyle old fabric and some other things, and make a great product end result, too. Thank you everyone, for all of these great ides. I am going to try to make some items. I wish my grandmother had taught me to do this too.

My mother is, we have trouble disposing of the old clothes she had collected, I can see in there some of my clothes when I was in yet in high school, I'm 43 years old now, she just does want to let them go. Every christmas we dispose off our unused clothes to be given away, they accumulate so much. Althoug some I recycle into quilts, however I do not have enough time to do quilt them.

I make quilts from scrap material on a regular basis. I love to make denim quilts. I go to our local thrift store when they are having a bag sale. I gather up all the denim jeans I can get in a large garbage bag for $2.00. I have quilted cushions for my rocker, cover for my futon, blankets and comforters among other things. I also love to work with flannel. I use flannel to make backings for my denim quilts. They make great quilted toss pillows for that cozy look in the living room. I use our clothes and thrift store finds. Homemade quilts are streadier and warmer than commercial ones. I dont really like rag rugs as they are slick on my hardwood floor even with the rug grippers on them.

I think you can make beautifull things from old materials. A few weeks ago someone showed me a beautifull quilt she made out of old clothes. Really beautifull and she is very pround of her work.

That is so interesting. I like that idea, instead of wasting money on new clothing just to do a quilt on it, you can just use the old clothing. I like that idea very much. Thanks for sharing that.

I finally got a sewing machine for christmas ( i've been asking for one for years) and i'm gonna attempt to make a quilt with my kids old clothes for them. I kinda have an idea of how to do it i'm so exited to get started.

That's a good idea. I've never made rugs out of it before. We usually take old clothes and cut them up for house cleaning and car cleaning rags if it's a t-shirt or something like that.

That is really cool! ^_^ I had a quilt that my grandmother sewed for me when I was very young, but it wasn't from scraps I don't think. But such a rug or quilt would be very interesting to look at, and would bring back memories of the things that the scraps originally came from! It would be very cool to see some examples of such rugs, methinks! ^_^ (BTW, I'm a packrat myself! *laugh*)

My grandmother and my mother did this too. I kinda of inherited the "urge" to do so also; it's just so much fun to do and it gives you a sence of accomplishment and fufillment that you Made this piece of artwork and saved used what you had already. I have not made one latley, but now that I have been reminded I will.