During the cold winter months many people take up indoor crafts like knitting, crocheting, quilting, sewing or woodworking.
Last fall I joined a group of ladies to learn how to make a jean rug. One of my friends from the class made eight of these rugs before Christmas, many for gifts. This may be a project you would like to try. An added bonus is that it uses up some of those old jeans.
The rugs are washable and make a good mat for the back door, in front of the sink, in the laundry room or a bedroom. They would work well in a camper or at the cabin as well.
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Three squares of fabric are layered, and then stitched diagonally repeatedly onto a fabric base. The layers are cut and when the rug is washed the edges fray to give a chenille appearance. (See top right photo.)
Making a denim rug
Use jean-weight denim. New fabric can be used but most people recycle old jeans. Don’t limit yourself to blue shades; use colours in any combination, such as light and darks to give a checkered design, or similar shades to give the appearance of one colour.
In the top photo you will see a square that appears light and dark. It was made using two layers of dark blue denim with a lighter coloured square on top. I had run out of cut squares and borrowed these squares, which you can see broke the pattern of the rug. To make the pattern appear symmetrical, this square should have been placed in the middle rather than the side.
A rotary cutter, cutting mat and clear acrylic quilting ruler with horizontal, vertical and 45 degree angle lines make the cutting easier. Also, using a seven-inch (18 centimetre) square, clear acrylic quilt block template makes cutting uniform squares much simpler.
The finished dimensions of the rug are approximately 231/2 inches by 381/2 inches (60 X 100 cm).
Background colour
The first step is to decide what colours to use and what colour the base will be.
For the base, use a piece of denim measuring 25 inches by 40 inches (64 X 100 cm) or make a base from the legs of jeans.
To do this, cut strips at least 26 inches (65 cm) long by whatever the width of the jean leg. Square the ends of these strips. These pieces should not have any patches, holes, hems, seams or decorations.
Cut enough strips so that when they are overlapped at the edges by a half inch (one cm), the base will measure at least 40 inches (100 cm).
On the 26 inch (65 cm) length edges, measure in a half inch (one cm) and draw a line using a pen. Use this to guide the overlapping of the edges and to match up the lower edges to give a straight and square edge. Pin it in place and then zigzag, using a wide stitch, along the raw edges.
Flip over and stitch the raw edges on the other side. Continue doing this until you have a base at least 26 inches by 40 inches (65 X 100 cm).
Measure, square up and trim to these dimensions. Decide which side will be the base of the rug.
Measure 11/2 inches (four cm) all the way around the edge of the base and draw a line, on the top of the material. Turn up the raw edge to this line and zigzag the raw edge. The base should now measure 231/2 inches by 381/2 inches (60 X 100 cm).
Cut blocks
Cut 45 seven-inch (18 cm) squares. Put the squares in stacks of three. The colour and shade of each of these blocks will affect the finished appearance of the rug. Using some dark and light coloured squares in each stack will produce a square with two shades to it. (See top photo.)
In laying out the stacks of blocks you might want to alternate a stack of dark squares and light squares. Decide which squares you want on the top to give the colour and pattern that you desire. The squares that are in the middle of the stack can have stains or paint spatters because they won’t show.
Draw a diagonal line on all of the top squares. Pin three squares together by placing pins on each side of the diagonal line.
Arrange the squares on the base using the diagonal line as part of the pattern. They can all be going the same direction, in a zigzag pattern or randomly.
Place the stacks of squares evenly on the base – three squares on the width and five squares to the length. Leave an even space of about a half inch (one cm) between all the squares and around the edge. Securely pin each stack of squares in place on the base using six pins.
Try to bury the pointed end of the pins within the layers of fabric to avoid being pricked by them, or use large safety pins.
Starting with the middle row, stitch on the diagonal line, backstitch at the beginning and end of the line. Continue to the next square, depending on the pattern you may be able to stitch from one square to the next, without cutting the thread.
Once all of the squares have been stitched through once, return to the first square and stitch again about a half-inch (one cm) away from the first row of stitching. Repeat this until all of the squares have been covered with rows of stitching a half-inch (one cm) apart. If you can set your needle to the left, you can use the right side or your presser foot as a guide.
You should be able to stitch from one square to the next, depending on your square layout. Continue stitching down all of the squares in this manner. (See bottom photo.) The rug will become stiff, so roll it from the end to make it easier to handle while sewing.
Cut rows
When all of the squares have been stitched, use a seam ripper, sharp scissors or a chenille cutter rotary blade to cut between the rows of stitching. The block on the left side of the bottom photo has been cut between the rows of stitching.
Using the clear acrylic ruler and the 45
degree angle, cut three-quarter inch (two cm) bias strips of denim to go between each square and around the edge of the rug. Place the strip between the squares and stitch through the centre of the strip. Do the length of the rug and then the cross pieces. Just butt the ends of the bias strips together to join.
Finally, sew the bias strips around the
outside in the same manner. Again, backstitch at the beginning and end of each line of stitching. Clip all of the thread ends.
Wash and fluff
The final step is to wash your rug, using fabric softener in the rinse cycle. Shake the wet rug outside to get rid of the big balls of threads. Put it in the dryer to dry and fluff. Clean the lint filter often. When dry, the rug will have a soft fluffy surface. To clean, shake outside or wash and dry to refluff.
This same sewing technique can be used to create smaller projects such as a hot pot mat, with one square or placemats using six squares. Larger rugs could be made by joining several small rugs together with Velcro strips. They would need to be taken apart to wash.
Betty Ann Deobald is a home economist from Rosetown, Sask., and one of four columnists comprising Team Resources. Send correspondence in care of this newspaper, Box 2500, Saskatoon, Sask., S7K 2C4 or contact them at team@producer.com.
