Step by Step Instructions to Make Your Own Rag Rugs
There is something deeply satisfying about making something useful and beautiful out of scraps that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Rag rugs have been a staple of resourceful households for centuries, born from the practical need to repurpose worn-out clothing, bed linens, and fabric remnants into durable floor coverings. Today, crafters around the world are rediscovering this tradition — not just for its sustainability, but because handmade rag rugs bring warmth, texture, and a one-of-a-kind charm to any room.
Whether you are a seasoned crafter or someone picking up a needle and thread for the first time, this guide will walk you through everything you need to know to make your own rag rug from scratch. We will cover the tools and materials, how to prepare your fabric strips, and three of the most popular methods for making rag rugs — braiding, locker hooking, and weaving. By the end, you will have enough knowledge to choose the method that suits your style and skill level, and to create a rug you will be proud to display in your home.
Why Make a Rag Rug?
Before diving into the how-to, it is worth taking a moment to appreciate why rag rugs have remained popular across so many generations and cultures. The most obvious reason is cost. Store-bought area rugs can be surprisingly expensive, especially for larger sizes. A handmade rag rug, on the other hand, can be made almost entirely from materials you already own or can source for free. Old T-shirts, worn jeans, bed sheets past their prime, thrift store finds — all of these can become the raw material for a beautiful rug.
There is also the matter of customization. When you make your own rug, you choose the colors, the pattern, and the size. You can match your rug precisely to the color palette of a room, or you can create something deliberately eclectic and full of personality. Many people find that the random combination of fabrics they have on hand leads to surprisingly cohesive and attractive designs.
And then there is the meditative quality of the work itself. Braiding, hooking, and weaving are all rhythmic, repetitive activities that many crafters find deeply calming. It is the kind of work that lets your hands stay busy while your mind rests — perfect for evenings when you want to unwind without staring at a screen.
Finally, making a rag rug is one of the most genuinely sustainable crafts you can practice. The fashion and textile industry is one of the leading contributors to global waste. Every time you transform an old garment into a lasting household item, you are extending the life of that material and keeping it out of the waste stream.
Materials and Tools You Will Need
The specific tools you need will depend on which method you choose, but here is a general overview of what to gather before you begin.
Fabric. This is the heart of your rug. Cotton fabrics work best for beginners because they are easy to cut, relatively forgiving to work with, and hold up well underfoot. Denim is excellent for durability. Wool creates a beautifully soft and dense rug but can be trickier to work with in large quantities. Avoid fabrics that fray excessively, like loosely woven burlap or very open-weave textiles — these will frustrate you and result in an uneven surface. Flannel, fleece, jersey knit (like T-shirt material), and bedsheets are all fantastic options.
Scissors. A good pair of sharp fabric scissors will save you an enormous amount of time and frustration. Dull scissors make cutting strips a miserable task. If you plan to make rugs regularly, consider a rotary cutter and cutting mat, which allow you to cut multiple layers of fabric at once and produce very even strips.
A ruler or measuring tape. Consistent strip width is important for producing an even-looking rug, so having something to measure against is helpful, especially while you are learning.
Backing or foundation material. For locker hooking and some latch hook methods, you will need a stiff mesh canvas or rug canvas. For braided rugs, you will sew the braid to itself, so no separate backing is needed. For woven rugs on a loom, the loom itself provides the structure.
Needle and thread (or a sewing machine). For braided rugs, you will use a sturdy needle and strong thread to sew the braid into a coil. A curved upholstery needle makes this much easier. For locker hook rugs, a locker hook tool is the main implement.
A loom (optional). If you choose the weaving method, you will need either a purchased loom or a simple DIY frame loom made from a picture frame and nails. Frame looms are inexpensive and easy to build.
Preparing Your Fabric Strips
No matter which rug-making method you choose, the process begins the same way: preparing your fabric strips. This step takes time but is worth doing carefully, as the quality of your strips directly affects the quality of your finished rug.
Start by washing and drying all of your fabric. This pre-shrinks the material and ensures that your finished rug will not warp or pucker the first time you wash it. Remove any buttons, zippers, elastic waistbands, or hardware from clothing before cutting. Set aside particularly stiff or heavy interfacing sections, as these do not roll or braid well.
Next, decide on your strip width. For braided rugs, strips between one and two inches wide are typical, though thicker fabrics like denim should be cut narrower — about three-quarters of an inch — because they will bulk up more when folded. For locker hook rugs, strips of about one inch work well with standard rug canvas. For woven rugs, narrower strips of half an inch to one inch are common.
For woven fabrics (as opposed to knit fabrics like jersey), you have two good options for cutting strips. The first is to cut straight across the grain of the fabric, producing individual strips that you will join end to end later. The second is the spiral cut method: cut into the edge of the fabric at an angle and then keep cutting in a spiral pattern, essentially unwinding the fabric into one long continuous strip without having to sew pieces together. This takes a little practice but is very efficient once you get the hang of it.
For jersey knit fabrics, simply cut straight across the fabric. When you pull the strip, the edges will curl inward naturally, creating a rounded cord-like strip that works beautifully in all rug-making methods and does not fray at all.
To join separate strips into longer lengths, you can use a simple square knot and hide the knot on the underside of your work, or you can use the “no-sew join” method: cut a small slit near the end of each strip, loop one strip through the other, and pull the tail through the slit of the first strip to create an interlocked join that lies flat and is nearly invisible in the finished rug.
Once your strips are prepared, roll them into balls or wind them into small fabric skeins to keep them organized and tangle-free. Sorting your fabric by color family before you begin will make it much easier to plan your design as you work.
Method One: The Braided Rag Rug
The braided rag rug is probably the most traditional and recognizable style. It produces a thick, sturdy rug with a coiled oval or round shape and is well suited for high-traffic areas like entryways and kitchens.
Begin by selecting three fabric strips in your chosen colors. Tie or clip them together at one end — you can use a safety pin to anchor this end to a stable surface, like the arm of a chair or a pillow, so that you have something to braid against. Begin braiding just as you would braid hair: left strip over center, right strip over center, repeat. Keep your tension even and consistent. If your strips are made of woven fabric, fold the raw edges toward the center as you braid to prevent fraying and create a neater finished edge.
As you run out of strip length, join new strips using the method described above, staggering the joins so that no two joins happen at the same point in the braid. This prevents lumpy spots.
Once you have a length of braid about twelve to fifteen inches long, you are ready to begin coiling and sewing. Lay your braid flat on a table and begin coiling it into an oval shape (for an oval rug) or a round shape (for a round rug). To start an oval, fold about six inches of the beginning of the braid back on itself, then continue wrapping around. Thread your curved needle with strong upholstery thread and begin whip-stitching the loops of the braid together as you coil, passing the needle through the edge loops of adjacent rows. Do not pull the stitches too tight — the goal is to hold the rows together while keeping the rug flat.
Continue braiding and adding to the coil, stitching as you go, until your rug reaches the desired size. To finish the rug, taper the last few inches of your braid by gradually trimming away one strip at a time so that the braid narrows to a point, then tuck this tapered end under the last row and stitch it securely.
The finished braided rug can be used as-is or, if it tends to slip, treated with a few lines of non-slip fabric paint on the underside or topped with a rug pad.
Method Two: Locker Hooking
Locker hooking produces a flat, tightly textured rug with a pleasingly uniform surface. It is more structured than braiding and allows for more precise geometric patterns and designs.
For locker hooking, you will need a piece of rug canvas (a stiff open-weave mesh typically made of polypropylene or similar material), a locker hook tool, and your prepared fabric strips. You will also need a locking yarn — a strand of thin yarn that “locks” your fabric strips into the canvas holes — and ideally a tapestry needle for finishing.
Begin by cutting your rug canvas to the desired finished size, then fold the edges back and secure them with the locking yarn to create a neat border and prevent the cut canvas edges from unraveling.
Thread a fabric strip onto your locker hook. The locker hook looks like a crochet hook with a long hollow shaft and an eye at the opposite end — you thread the locking yarn through the eye so it trails behind the hook. Working from left to right, push the hook down through a hole in the canvas, catch the fabric strip from below, and pull a loop of it up through the hole. Move one hole to the right and repeat, pulling up another loop. The locking yarn running along the back of the work through the hook eye catches behind each loop as you go, holding all the loops in place and preventing them from pulling out.
Continue across each row, working in a grid pattern. When you reach the end of a fabric strip, leave a short tail on the underside of the canvas and begin a new strip, tucking both tails under the surrounding loops on the back. When you have filled the entire canvas, finish by weaving the ends of the locking yarn back through the underside of the work with a tapestry needle.
The loops on the surface of a locker hook rug can be left as loops for a textured, almost shag-like finish, or they can be cut and trimmed to create a soft cut-pile surface. Many crafters prefer to leave the loops intact because it is more durable, but the cut-pile finish has a luxurious, velvety feel that is especially appealing for bedroom rugs.
Method Three: Weaving on a Frame Loom
Weaving is the most structured of the three methods and produces a flat, smooth rug with a look similar to a commercially woven textile. It requires a loom, but a simple frame loom is easy to make at home.
To build a frame loom, take a sturdy picture frame or build a simple rectangular wooden frame from two-by-fours. Hammer nails or screws evenly along the top and bottom edges, spacing them about half an inch apart. The space between the nails will determine the density of your weave.
Set up your warp — the vertical threads that form the foundation of the weave — by tying a length of sturdy cotton string, jute twine, or thin yarn to the first nail at the top left, then running it down to the corresponding nail at the bottom, back up to the next nail at the top, and so on, in a figure-eight pattern across the entire loom. Keep the warp threads taut and evenly tensioned.
To weave, thread a tapestry needle or weaving shuttle with your fabric strip. Begin at one side and weave over and under alternate warp threads across the entire width of the loom. When you reach the end of the row, loop around the last warp thread, and weave back in the opposite direction, this time going under threads you previously went over and vice versa. After every few rows, use a fork, a comb, or your fingers to push the rows of weaving downward so they pack tightly together — this is called “beating” the weft and it creates a dense, durable surface.
Change colors and strip types as often or as infrequently as you like. Stripes are the natural result of this method, making it easy to create bold, graphic designs. You can also weave simple patterns by varying which warp threads you go over and under.
When the woven section fills the loom, carefully lift the finished piece off the nails, tie off the warp threads in pairs to prevent unraveling, and trim them to create a fringe, or tuck them back through the woven fabric with a tapestry needle to create a clean edge.
Finishing and Caring for Your Rag Rug
Once your rug is complete, give it a gentle hand wash or machine wash on a delicate cycle in cold water. Lay it flat to dry or hang it over a railing — avoid putting it in a hot dryer as this can cause shrinkage or distortion, especially in braided rugs. Once dry, place a non-slip rug pad or rug gripper underneath to prevent accidents, especially on hard floors.
Rag rugs are surprisingly durable with proper care. Most can be washed regularly, which is part of what makes them so practical for kitchens, bathrooms, and entryways. Locker hook rugs tend to be the most robust, followed by braided rugs. Woven rugs are a little more delicate but still hold up very well to normal foot traffic.
If a portion of your rug ever becomes damaged, rag rugs are generally easy to repair. Braided rugs can have a section re-stitched. Locker hook rugs can have individual loops replaced. Woven rugs can often be re-woven in the damaged area if you have leftover fabric strips.
Tips for Success
Start small. Your first rug does not need to be a five-foot oval masterpiece. A small bath mat or doormat is the perfect practice project and is still useful when you are done.
Be consistent with your strip width. Uneven strips lead to uneven texture in the finished piece, so take the time to cut carefully — or invest in a rotary cutter if you plan to make rugs regularly.
Do not worry too much about matching fabrics perfectly. Part of the appeal of a rag rug is its improvised, patchwork quality. Colors and patterns that seem like they would clash often look wonderful together once they are woven, braided, or hooked together.
Label or sort your fabric by color before you begin. Having your strips organized makes it much easier to create intentional color patterns and avoids the frustration of digging through a pile of scraps mid-project.
Save your scraps. Even the smallest pieces of fabric can be cut into short strips and used in the center of a braided rug or tucked into a locker hook piece. Nothing needs to go to waste.
A Craft Worth Passing Down
Making a rag rug connects you to a long tradition of human ingenuity and resourcefulness. These rugs have warmed the floors of farmhouses, cottages, and city apartments for hundreds of years, each one a small record of the clothing and linens that came before it. When you make your own, you are adding your own chapter to that story — repurposing something worn out into something that will be admired and used for years to come.
The process is forgiving, the materials are inexpensive, and the results are genuinely beautiful. Whether you braid, hook, or weave, there is a rag rug method that will suit your skill level and your style. All that remains is to gather your fabric, choose your colors, and begin.
