Thursday 24 May 2012

Rag Rug Chair Pad - In Crochet!

Did you know that those playful, kitschy, shaggy rag rugs are done using crochet? I just about jumped for joy when I discovered that, and went right to work researching how to make one.

I've become quite well-acquainted with crochet. In fact, I now prefer it to knitting. After tossing my knitting needles messily aside, I picked up a huge-mongous crochet hook and went to work on creating some chair pads for our garden furniture.

The great thing about these chair pads is that they are made of old t-shirts. In other words, they're washable, won't shrink, bleed or fray, and come in a wealth of fabulous colours!

It just so happens that I had a fairly healthy stash of discarded t-shirts in my fabric stash, so I quickly went to work cutting strips. The method that I used required no sewing at all, and the whole project from cutting strips to tucking in loose edges took me roughly 5 hours.

We have two chairs that need pads, so I'm really only half finished this project, but the halfway point is oh-so-rewarding. What do you think?



Here is the finished product!

I used about a dozen t-shirts for this. One red, two brown, and the rest in differing shades of blue.


Here are the rags that I cut. I didn't cut too carefully, just wanted to get the job done.
Any uneven edges don't show in the end product.


After tying all of the strips together, I wound them into balls.

Then I began to crochet. I chained 4, looped around, and then did 8 in the middle ring.
I doubled the second ring and did the gradual increase for the rest.
I decided to add a brown border to finish it off. In the end, I did two full rounds of brown as the edging.

Pretty!

And here is the end result! Lovely! (It was raining or I would have taken it right into the garden!)

2 comments:

  1. very cool indeed! i bought one of those huge hooks at the quilt show and you've encouraged me to do it! thank you much for sharing :)

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  2. Those are gorgeous!!! I can't believe how much stuff you make and do, even working full time!!! You're WonderWoman!!!

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