Wrapped Rag Rug Tutorial

Hi everyone! I’ve been having a ton of fun this past week making my very own scrappy Bonnie and Camille wrapped rag rug! A few people who have been following its progress on Instagram asked if I could do a tutorial so to help all those of you who are like me a hoard scrap strips this will be a great stash buster, but you can also make it using precuts too which is great if you are wanting just one fabric line ;).

To get started you’ll need either a jelly roll or a layer cake. If you are using scraps you can always just keep adding strips until you reach about the same amount of fabric. If you use scraps I recommend using 10″ or longer pieces. Otherwise you’ll loose quite a bit of the piece in the overlapping process (more on that later). You will also need 1/4″ cotton piping cord. You can find this at your local craft store as well as etsy and amazon. For this example I used 50 yards of piping.

Depending on what type of precut you are using you’ll be cutting your fabric one of two ways:

For Jelly Roll strips you will simply be cutting them in half lengthwise. This will create (2) 1-1/4″x WOF strips per Jelly Roll Strip for a total of (80) 1-1/4″x WOF strips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Layer Cakes squares you will just each square into (8) 10″x 1-1/4″ strips for a total of (320) 10″x 1-1/4″ strips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To start the rug you must first wrap the fabrics you’ve just cut around the cotton piping cord.  To begin this you will first place your first jelly roll strip with the end overlapping the cord by about 1/2″ and start wrapping the fabric around the cord. It is important to hold the cording taunt while wrapping to avoid a lot of bumps where the fabrics meet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you get to the end of each strip leave about an inch of fabric and lay the new strip inside the previous one. Continue to wrap carefully making sure the new piece is wrapping with the old one. Repeat these steps until you reach the end of your cording.

If you are using more that one hank of cording you might need to join the cording at some point while making your rug. To do this just over lap the cords about 1/2″ and use a basic zigzag (or straight) stitch (with a backstitch) to hold them together. Then keep wrapping over the join. There might be a small “bump” where they join but once the rug is stitched together you won’t see it.

*Helpful Tip: If at any point while wrapping the fabric you want to take a break, just place a wonder clip on the last place you wrapped the fabric and it will keep things from unraveling ;)*

Now for the fun part! Making the rug. Before you start this I recommend winding a few bobbins to help when things get moving.

Set your machine to a basic zigzag stitch (its usually one of the first ones on your machine but I you are unsure its usually in the operations manual for your machine).

You will need to be turning your rug in a counter clockwise motion. If you start stitching and notice that the bulk of you rug is in the throat of your machine you did an oopsie ( no biggie I did it too >_<). To start you’ll need to decide whether you want a circular rug or a more oblong rug.

For a circle you’ll want the starting turn to only be 1-2″ .

For a more oblong rug you’ll want a much longer section for the starting turn. Closer to 4-5″.

Once you’ve decided the shape, it’s time to get stitching! Place the start of your cording with the first “turn” under your pressure foot. This will be a tight squeeze for your machine but if you lift the foot while inserting the cord it helps. I like to have my needle in the down position so nothing moves around when maneuvering the turns at the beginning of the rug. Stitch down the middle of the two cords (use the line on the middle of your pressure foot as a guide). You’ll want to keep the meeting of the cords on that line to ensure that your zigzag stitch is hitting both sides as you sew.

Once you come to the end, stop and turn the piece counter clockwise and stitch down the next side of the rug.

Continue doing this until you have sew all but 1-2″ of the cording to the rug. Fold this piece under the rug and stitch (and backstitch) over it to secure the end.

You now have a 30-33″ rug!