How to Prepare Cotton Strips for Rug Making

While making rugs from rags has utilitarian origins, crafters have adopted the techniques for expressing their own creativity. Whether you use old rags and clothes or purchase new fabric for your rug, preparing the strips before you start is the key to avoiding frustration and keeping the project simple. Cotton or cotton/polyester blends need a little more preparation than wools, knits or other fabrics, which will simply need to be attached to one another for length.

Cotton or cotton/polyester fabric
Iron
Hem gauge
Tailors' chalk
Scissors
Sewing machine or hand-stitching needle
Thread

Instructions

- 1
  Wash and dry new cotton fabric to remove the sizing. Iron the laundered material if it has excessive wrinkles, which is often the case with 100 percent cottons.
- 2
  Lay the cotton fabric flat on your work surface. Mark cutting lines 2 inches apart with a hem gauge and chalk.
- 3
  Cut out the strips. Trim loose threads as necessary.
- 4
  Stitch the strips end to end with diagonal seam allowances to strengthen them and avoid bulkiness. For fabrics other than cotton or cotton blends, your strips are now ready.
- 5
  Fold 1/2 inch of each long edge of the strips toward the center. Press the creases as you go.
- 6
  Fold the 1-inch strips in half and press the strips to crease them.

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