Monday, March 14, 2005

The Braided Jeans Rug

My husband is hard on his pants. My sons are hard on their pants. For all of them, the knees are always the first to go, then the corners on either side of the back pockets begin to fray and before you know it you're practically exposed.

A while back I read about rag rugs and decided the give it a try. After all, I had a big pile of jeans that were beyond repair but I just knew there was a use for. I cut the jeans into strips, sewed the strips so they wouldn't fray and just recently, began to braid them. I'm a visual learner and most of the instructions I've seen have been print only so I've been winging this.

Saturday morning I bought two supplies for this project, heavy duty thread and quilting needles(my needles were all too short for the next step), I spent a little over $3.00. Saturday evening I began to sew the braided pieces together, coiling them around and stitching them in place. I figured there was no point in continuing if the rug looked crummy. We had finally sat down to watch "Supersize Me" as a family while I was working on this. My 12 yr old suddenly looked up and said, "That looks really good." To my suprise, it really did!

At this point, the rug is only about six inches wide and two and a half feet long but at least I know that I'm not wasting my time sewing and braided the remaining strips of denim in sitting in my basket. I'm actually calling my family later to ask for their worn out jeans!

No comments: