Cutting a Rug

by Heather

2 Materials

Check out my new Rug made from old T-shirts

cutting a rug, crafts, how to, repurposing upcycling

This has been one of my favorite projects but then again it has the most labor I have put into than any other one. This first started out as an idea years and years ago because it seemed I had way too many holey and stained t-shirts just laying around. This was actually right around the time Pinterest was still pretty new, but I remember going to Pinterest for ideas on things to make awesome with old t-shirts. I remember seeing a few rugs, not a ton but a few and I thought, hey i can do that!

I had a lot of T-shirts however not enough for the the color scheme I wanted to do. I knew I wanted an ultra girly rug, so pink's and purple's were a must!

Once I had all my T-shirts, I then cut every single one into strips about 3" long and less than an inch wide. The strips aren't perfect and thats actually ok! I just all mine by hand however if you do have a rotary tool that would be so much faster.

Next, you will want to pick out a size, I knew I wanted a big ol' rug!!! So my grid is 20" by 38"

Just a tip: Maybe start smaller. I knew this would be time consuming however, thats an understatement, this rug probably took me 5 months to complete.

To get the strips through the holes I used tweezers. I would feed a few through at a time then flip the rug over and tie a knot to each strip.

After a 2 seasons of Kimmy Schmidt, entire series of Breaking Bad and 5 Seasons of Walking Dead all on Netflix this is how it turned out. Because this is so time consuming, for me it was easiest to turn on Netflix and just working on this, it was like killing 2 birds with one stone :)

Found the perfect stop to put it too. Make sure to add some non-slip grips on the back if you have it in a high traffic area. For me, Its just right in front of the TV in my craftroom and adds the perfect girly pop of color I wanted.

Also, for fun here is a Rolling Stones one I did for my dad. Possibilities are endless really just allow of some time :)

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3 of 13 questions

Tees on Aug 15, 2016
That looks so good. Just wondering about the knotting. Once completed, is the back just the knots ?

6
Judy Pennington on Aug 16, 2016
Question is it possible to use a rug latch hook?

1
Judy Pennington on Aug 20, 2016
Is it possible to use a rug hook latch to pull the tee shirt material through?

1

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2 of 37 comments

Carrollyn Hamel on Oct 15, 2016
THIS IS BEAUTIFUL!

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Carol Conrad on Aug 15, 2017

I found this post in my FB Memories this morning and it will solve a big Problem for me. Last year I started crocheting rugs using T-Shirt yarn. However you only use the bottom of the shirts (under the sleeves) for that project so I have dozens of T-shirt tops left over. I couldn't bring myself to thrown them away.. I knew one day I would find a use for them. This is it. I can't wait to get started. I will definitely use a latch hook and pull the ends through the loop so no knots.. But Thanks for the idea and inspiration.

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