Or fabric cabbages, as we have been calling them.
What is the purpose of fabric cabbages? In my case, rugs. My floors are freezing in the winter. We have stone tiles, which are both very hard and very cold. One of the things I am doing to compensate for that is adding more rugs.
I had a few old sheets kick the bucket at around the same time, so I had some good sized pieces of material to start with. I have been keeping my eye out at thrift stores for more (rugs take more fabric than you would think). As a bonus, I will also be able to wash the finished product!
Now, before I get into how to make this “yarn” I want to point out that there is no reason your fabric has to be sheets. This is basically a giant rag rug, and people have been cutting up old clothes and other worn out fabrics for this sort of thing forever. There is also no rule stating that you have to join your pieces or roll it into a ball like I will. For some types of weaving or for colour matching purposes, you might not want to. I am going to crochet my rug in a pretty casual stripe pattern, so having the yarn ready to go in a ball makes sense for my finished project.
This is a pretty easy one, but very satisfying, Are you ready to go?
Your first step is easy but satisfying. Cut evenly places snips along your fabric however wide you want your fabric strips to be. (I went with about an inch and a half, and folded my yarn as I wound it. This is a bit on the thick side though, because my floors are unusually hard. One inch is a more common choice.)
Then rip! If you have a nice even weave, like a sheet, you should be able to just rip your strips off fairly easily. If you are using other materials, you might have to cut them.
Once you have all of your strips, this is the method I use to attach them. First, overlap the ends. Snip through both layers. Then pull the loose end up through the middle of the overlapping cuts.
When you are done it should look like the picture above. Roll it into a ball as you go if you don’t want a crazy mess!
Et voila! your finished product. Or just the starting material for your next project, depending on how you look at it…
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