Handmade Braided Rugs: Put Together a No-Sew Braided Rug

Enlarge Image Image Gallery By using Grandma's four-strand braid and interlocking method, your handmade, braided rug can require very little sewing! ILLUSTRATION: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF

Here's an attractive, old-fashioned floor cover that barely requires sewing! Handmade braided rugs, braided the way your grandmother did it, can save you money and make your house cozy.

The familiar braided wool rug has certainly stood the test of time, but my grandmother taught me — years ago — how to put together a handmade braided rug, one that eliminates the whole process of sewing the rug together, and gives the rug maker greater control over his or her colors.

Best of all, since my grandmother's rugs are made from inexpensive cotton, synthetic or blended fabric scraps, they don't cost much to make, and they're washable!

To begin, gather a pile of fabric scraps. Cut these scraps and rags — on either the lengthwise or crosswise grain — into the longest strips possible. These bands should be 2 inches wide and (ideally) 3 to 5-feet long (tear the strips — when you can — to save time, and sew short pieces together to get the right lengths).

Next, fold each strip's raw edges into the center, and then refold along the middle of the strips to hide those turned-under edges. If you do have a sewing machine, stitch the folds closed as you go to make a permanent crease. If you don't own a machine, just baste or iron the folds in place.

Sort the strips — by color — into bags or boxes. You don't have to fuss too much over the design, but even a hit-or-miss pattern will look sharper if a particular color (usually a dark one) is saved for the outer border.

Plan Ahead for Your No-Sew, Braided Rug

You'll have to decide how big your rug will be before you start it, because those proportions will tell you how long to make the center braid. As a rule of thumb, the length of that braid can be found by subtracting your planned rug's width from its length. A 2-by-3-foot rug, then, will need 1 foot of center braid, while a 3-by-5-foot rug will require 2 feet (a round rug, as you'll see, only needs a few inches of center braid).

It's best not to be too ambitious, until you get the hang of four-strand braiding. If you want to make a 2-by-3-foot — which is a good size for your first project — you'll have to gather three to four pounds of scraps.

Four-Strand Braid, Grandma's Interlocking Method

To make the center braid, pick three strips of cloth and sew them together at one end. Make sure these are of different lengths, and keep the lengths varied as you sew strips onto those that are braided in. Three stitched connections, if too close together, will produce a weak spot in the rug.

If you can find someone to hold the sewed ends (as you would hair) while you braid the center piece, you'll produce a straighter, more even weave. Make this central "rope" an inch longer than you determined by the length-minus-width formula above, because the end will have to turn back on itself when you begin to work on the next layer of the rug (to start a round rug, just braid 2 or 3 inches, and fold this center braid in half to form a "core").