Directions for Twining Rugs

Make especially attractive rugs by choosing remnant fabrics that complement your existing décor. You can even dye your fabrics to ensure you have the colors you want. Since you’re making these rugs from clothing and other washable materials, twined rugs are completely machine-washable. They are also very inexpensive because they can be made from items you already have.

1. Cut strips of cloth about ¼ inch wide from all of your towels and pieces of clothing. Separate them into piles by type of fabric, piling denim, terry cloth and cotton each in their own pile.

2. Place a sturdy cloth, like denim or wool, on your loom first. This gives the rug a strong foundation so that it will wear more slowly. Tie the ends of all of your foundation strips together to make one long strip.

3. Tie a loop at the end of your long foundation strip and slide it over the first peg of your twining loom. Twining looms are wooden frames with wooden pegs sticking up from all sides.

4. Stretch your foundation strip lengthwise down the loom and wrap it around the first peg on that end. Bring the strip back up to the first end and loop it around the second peg. Stretch it down to the opposite end and loop it around the second peg on that end. Continue until the foundation strip is looped around all the pegs on both ends. These are called your “warp threads.”

5. Tie all the strips of cloth together for your weft threads, the cloth that you will weave into your warp threads. Tie a loop into the end of this second strip and slip it over the first peg on the right side of the peg loom.

6. Weave the second strip over and under the first strip and loop it around the first peg on the left side of the loom. Weave the second strip over and under the first back to the right side of the loom and loop it around the second peg on the right side. Continue until all the pegs on the left and right sides of the loom are full.

7. Turn the loom up on its side and gently push the loops from the pegs on the uppermost side of the loom. Push the loops from the upright sides of the loom next and the bottom of the loom last.