Step by Step Instructions to Make Your Own Rag Rugs

There is something deeply satisfying about turning old fabric into something beautiful and useful. Rag rugs have been made for centuries — long before sustainability became a buzzword — and the craft has survived because it is genuinely rewarding. Whether you have a pile of worn-out t-shirts, old bed sheets, or fabric scraps from past sewing projects, you have everything you need to get started. This guide will walk you through the entire process from gathering your materials to finishing your very first rag rug, with enough detail that you will feel confident even if you have never woven or braided anything before.

What Is a Rag Rug and Why Should You Make One?

A rag rug is exactly what it sounds like: a rug made from strips of recycled or repurposed fabric. The tradition spans cultures and continents. Scandinavian farmhouses had them on wooden floors. American pioneer families braided them from worn clothing. Early Colonial households wove them on simple looms. Today, rag rug making is enjoying a well-deserved revival among crafters, homesteaders, and anyone who wants to add handmade character to their home without spending a lot of money.

The appeal goes beyond nostalgia. Making a rag rug is an excellent way to use textiles that might otherwise go to the landfill. You end up with a durable, washable floor covering that has real texture and visual warmth. And because you choose the fabrics yourself, the color palette is entirely personal. You can match a specific room, honor a sentimental piece of clothing, or simply empty your scrap basket in the most satisfying way imaginable.

There are several methods for making rag rugs, and this guide will cover the three most popular and accessible ones: braiding, looping (sometimes called toothbrush or proddy), and basic loom weaving. You do not need to tackle all three at once. Read through each method and choose the one that matches the tools you have and the style of rug you want.

Gathering Your Materials

Before you cut a single strip of fabric, you need to think about what you are working with. The fabric you choose will affect how your rug looks, how it wears, and how easy it is to work with.

Choosing the Right Fabric

Cotton is the most popular choice for rag rugs because it is soft, easy to cut, and holds its shape well. Old t-shirts, bed sheets, cotton curtains, and lightweight denim all work beautifully. Wool is excellent too — it is naturally durable and has a lovely texture — though it can be trickier to source in large quantities unless you are willing to visit thrift stores and cut up old sweaters and wool blankets.

Avoid anything too stretchy unless you are braiding, where a bit of stretch actually helps. Very slippery fabrics like satin or polyester can be frustrating to work with and may not hold their position in the finished rug. Flannel shirts and fleece blankets are wonderful additions because they are soft and bulky enough to fill out the rug nicely.

You will need more fabric than you might expect. A small accent rug about 18 inches by 30 inches typically requires three to five pounds of fabric. A larger area rug of three by five feet can easily use fifteen to twenty pounds. Start with what you have and add more as you go, sourcing from thrift stores, estate sales, fabric remnant bins, and donations from friends and family.

Tools You Will Need

For braiding, you need scissors, safety pins or clamps, a large blunt needle, and strong thread or fabric glue to finish the edges. A braiding stand or clamp attached to a table edge makes the work much easier on your hands.

For looping or proddy work, you need a hessian or burlap backing fabric, a proddy tool (which is basically a blunt hook or a chopstick will work in a pinch), and scissors. You can also use a purpose-made proddy frame.

For loom weaving, you need a loom. This can be an actual rigid heddle loom or table loom, but it can also be a simple frame loom you make yourself from a wooden picture frame and nails. You will also need a shuttle or stick to carry your weft strips across the warp.

Method One: How to Make a Braided Rag Rug

Braided rag rugs are perhaps the most beginner-friendly option, and they produce a classic oval or round rug with a cozy, textured look. The technique is essentially the same as braiding hair or rope, scaled up with fabric strips.

Step 1: Prepare Your Fabric Strips

Wash all of your fabric before you begin. This pre-shrinks it and removes any stiffness or residue. Once it is dry, cut or tear it into strips. For most fabrics, a width of about one and a half to two inches works well. Knit fabrics like t-shirts can be a bit wider, around two to three inches, because they roll and stretch when braided.

To tear cotton fabric into strips, make a small snip at the edge and then tear firmly across the grain. It is fast and produces a slightly softened edge that blends well when braided. For woven fabrics that might fray, you can fold each strip in thirds lengthwise as you work, hiding the raw edges. There are also fabric folding tools called bias tape makers that speed this up considerably.

Join your strips end to end. The simplest method is to cut a small slit about half an inch from the end of each strip, thread the next strip through the slit, and then pull its own end back through its slit to create a flat, secure join. This lark’s head style join lies flat in the braid and is nearly invisible in the finished rug.

Wind your prepared strips into loose balls or butterflies so they do not tangle as you work.

Step 2: Start Your Braid

Take three strips of fabric. Knot them together at one end, or fold them to a point and clamp them with a safety pin attached to something stable. A chair back, doorknob, or braiding stand all work.

Braid the three strips together exactly as you would braid hair: left strand over center, right strand over center, and repeat. Keep your tension even and consistent. Try to fold the raw edges to the center of each strip as you go so the braid looks tidy on both sides.

When one strand runs low, add a new strip using the lark’s head join you practiced earlier.

Step 3: Coil and Lace Your Rug

Once you have a few feet of braid, you can begin shaping your rug. For an oval rug, fold the beginning of your braid back on itself and start coiling it around that fold, stitching or lacing as you go. The length of that initial fold determines the length of your finished oval — a six-inch fold produces a rug about six inches longer than it is wide.

To lace the coils together, use a blunt needle threaded with strong thread in a matching color, or simply a length of the same fabric. Lace back and forth between the loops of adjacent rows, pulling snugly but not so tight that the rug cups. Lay your work flat frequently and adjust if you notice it buckling.

For a round rug, simply start coiling from the very first inch of braid.

Step 4: Shape and Finish Your Rug

Continue braiding and coiling until your rug is the size you want. To finish, taper the ends of your three strands by cutting them progressively shorter so the braid naturally tapers to a point. Tuck the tapered end under the last row and stitch it securely in place. Give the rug a firm press under a damp cloth with a warm iron to settle the fibers and flatten the surface.

Method Two: How to Make a Looped or Proddy Rag Rug

This method involves pushing short strips of fabric through a backing fabric using a pointed tool. The result is a shaggy, textured rug — almost like a small flokati — that is incredibly satisfying to make and wonderfully soft underfoot.

Step 1: Prepare Your Backing

Cut a piece of hessian or burlap to the finished size you want, plus about three inches on each side for a working border. Bind the raw edges with masking tape or a simple blanket stitch so they do not fray while you work.

If you want a specific design, draw it on the burlap with a permanent marker before you begin. Simple geometric shapes — stripes, concentric circles, diamonds — are easiest. You can also work free-form, letting colors develop as you go.

Step 2: Cut Your Fabric Strips

For this method, cut your fabric into short strips rather than long continuous ones. Each strip should be about one inch wide and three to four inches long, though you can adjust for longer or shorter loops depending on the look you want.

Cut several of each color and sort them into piles or small bowls. Having your colors organized makes it much easier to follow a pattern or work consistently.

Step 3: Loop the Strips Through the Backing

Hold a strip of fabric folded in half. Push your proddy tool or a large crochet hook through a hole in the burlap, hook the folded center of the strip, and pull it partway through so that a loop appears on the right side of your work. Then push the two tails of the same strip through adjacent holes so they poke out on the same right side as the loop.

Work across the burlap, placing strips close together so there are no gaps in the finished pile. Every hole or every other hole depending on the thickness of your fabric can receive a strip. The more densely you pack them, the more lush and durable the finished rug will be.

Step 4: Finish the Edges

When the entire surface is filled, fold the border of burlap to the back of the rug and stitch or glue it down. You can add a non-slip mesh backing at this stage if the rug will be used on a hard floor. Trim the pile to an even height if you want a tidier look, though an uneven shaggy surface is perfectly charming too.

Method Three: How to Weave a Rag Rug on a Simple Frame Loom

Woven rag rugs have a flatter, more structured look than braided or proddy rugs. They can be strikingly graphic with bold stripes, or subtle and tonal depending on your fabric choices. You do not need a fancy loom to get started.

Step 1: Build or Set Up Your Loom

A simple frame loom is made from a wooden picture frame or four pieces of lumber nailed into a rectangle. Hammer small nails or finishing nails along the top and bottom edges, spaced about a quarter inch to half an inch apart. These nails hold your warp threads.

Wind a sturdy cotton string or twine back and forth between the top nails and the bottom nails to create your warp. Pull it taut but not so tight that the frame bows. This warp is the skeleton of your rug — the weft strips of fabric will weave over and under it.

Step 2: Prepare Your Weft Strips

Cut your fabric into strips about one to two inches wide and as long as is practical. Longer strips mean fewer joins. Wind them onto a small piece of cardboard or a shuttle to make weaving easier.

Step 3: Weave Across the Warp

Starting at one end of the loom, weave your fabric strip over the first warp thread, under the second, over the third, and so on across the entire width. When you reach the other side, loop around the outermost warp thread and come back in the opposite sequence: under the first thread, over the second, under the third. This alternating pattern is called plain weave and it is the foundation of most woven textiles.

After every few passes, use a comb, fork, or your fingers to push the weft strips down toward the finished end of the rug, compacting them tightly together. The tighter you pack the weft, the more durable and dense your finished rug will be.

Leave a small tail at the beginning and end of each new strip. When the rug is finished, thread these tails onto a blunt needle and weave them back through the last few passes to secure them invisibly.

Step 4: Change Colors and Build Your Pattern

To change colors, simply begin a new strip at the edge. You can plan stripes in advance or let them develop organically. Keep in mind that the warp threads will show between passes if the weft is not packed tightly enough, so err on the side of compacting more rather than less.

Step 5: Remove the Rug and Finish the Ends

When your rug has reached the length you want, carefully slide it off the nails or cut the warp threads close to the nails, leaving enough of a tail to knot. Tie adjacent warp ends together in pairs to secure the weft and prevent unraveling. You can also weave these ends back in for a cleaner look, or leave them as a fringe if that suits the style of rug you were going for.

Tips for Success Regardless of Method

One of the most common mistakes beginners make is underestimating how much fabric they need. Always collect more than you think is necessary. You can store unused strips for your next project, but running out of a specific color or fabric mid-rug can be genuinely frustrating.

Color planning pays dividends. Even if you love a spontaneous approach, it helps to lay out your fabrics before you begin and think about how the colors interact. High contrast combinations — darks against lights — tend to look graphic and bold. Analogous color families — blues and greens together, or warm oranges and reds — create a more harmonious blended effect.

Washing and drying your finished rug is important for both appearance and function. A tumble in the washing machine on a gentle cycle and a dry in the dryer on low heat will help your rug relax and settle. Braided rugs especially benefit from this finishing step.

Non-slip backing is worth adding whenever the rug will be used on a hard floor. You can purchase non-slip rug gripper mesh at any fabric or home store, cut it to size, and whip stitch it to the back of the rug. This step alone will prevent many potential slips and falls and will also help your rug keep its shape over time.

Store extra strips in clearly labeled bags or bins by color so they are easy to find when you return to a project later. Fabric strips have a way of multiplying in the best possible sense — once you start collecting, you will never look at an old shirt or worn sheet the same way again.

How to Care for Your Finished Rag Rug

Rag rugs are generally quite easy to maintain, which is part of what made them so practical in centuries past. For regular upkeep, shake the rug outside to remove loose dirt and debris. Vacuum gently on a low setting, or turn the rug face-down on a clean floor and vacuum the back to pull dirt out through the pile.

For a full wash, machine washing on cold or gentle with a mild detergent works well for most cotton rugs. Lay the rug flat or hang it over a railing to dry rather than using the dryer if you want to preserve the shape. Heavily soiled rugs can be scrubbed outside with a brush and a diluted soap solution and then rinsed with a garden hose.

Wool rag rugs need a bit more care — hand washing or a delicate machine cycle in cold water prevents shrinking. Lay them flat to dry and reshape as needed while they are still damp.

Final Thoughts: Starting Your Rag Rug Journey

Making your own rag rug is one of those crafts that rewards you at every stage. There is pleasure in the collecting of fabric, joy in the cutting and preparation, a meditative quality to the actual making, and genuine pride when you lay the finished piece on the floor and realize that something beautiful came from things that were headed for the trash.

You do not need to be an experienced crafter. You do not need expensive tools or a dedicated craft room. You need fabric, a little time, and the willingness to begin. Start small — a little accent rug for the bathroom or a doormat for the entryway — and let the satisfaction of that first project carry you toward bigger and more ambitious rugs in the future.

Every rag rug tells a story. The faded flannel from an old favorite shirt. The bright cotton from a child’s outgrown pajamas. The worn linen from a tablecloth that served too many holidays to count. When you make a rag rug, you are not just recycling fabric. You are preserving a small history, weaving together the texture of daily life into something that will be walked on, admired, and perhaps someday handed down. That is a pretty wonderful thing to make on any ordinary day.