Grandma's Four-Strand Braided Rug

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With your center braid done, sew a fourth cloth strip under the last crossover formed by the original three. This will give you the four strands that you'll need to follow Grandma's "interlocking" method. Then, fasten a safety pin—to use as a "needle"—to the end of each strip.

If you're right-handed, hold the "working" end of the braid in your left hand (or vice versa for southpaws), and fold back that extra inch so that the four strands lie side by side—to the right of the braid—as shown in Illustration A.

Now, imagine that the strips are numbered—one through four—from right to left. Take strip No. 1 and weave it over strip No. 2, under strip No. 3, and over strip No. 4. Then, using the safety pin as a needle, pull strip No. 4 through the adjacent loop of the center braid as shown in Illustration B.

Strip No. 2 (the new "outside" strand) can then be woven over No. 3, under No. 4, over No. 1, and through the next loop of the center braid. (See Illustration C.)

This process of weaving the outer strip over . . . under . . . and over the other three, and then through succeeding loops of the center braid, will continue (with some variations ... see below) until the rug is finished. (You'll have to, of course, keep sewing new strips to the unbraided ends as you go.)

Keep It Flat

Every time you round a corner, your rug will have a tendency to "pucker." To compensate for this, just braid more than one strip through each center braid loop as you round these turns. For example, on your first row around the ends of the center braid you may have to weave through one loop five or six times. When you next go around the same spot, though, braiding twice through every other loop might be sufficient. It's impossible to give strict rules for this, except that fewer of these "extra" passes through one loop will be necessary as the rug grows. Just work on a level surface—so you can see if the rug stays flat—and braid two strips through the same strip more often if the center starts to pucker. If the edges of the rug begin to look frilly, on the other hand, use fewer of these extra "corner" weaves.

Finally, when your rug is the right size, trim each strip to about an inch long, weave each of these tips under a loop, and stitch 'em all in place.

That's all there is to it. So why not dig out those boxes of old clothes and scraps of sewing material and recycle them into a beautiful rug, "just like Grandma used to make"?

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