the story of a rag rug

This is the story of the `rag rug'.
I have been working on this on & off for months.It has been quite the odyssey for me, I had been taught by my granny on the farm, when I was but a wee girl. But it has been several decades & my `memory' is not quite the same as it was even a few years back. I got involved Thru a crochet friend who volunteer's as docent at a historical mountain cabin that was built in 1901. They are trying to replicate the furnishings to what it was back around 1930-1940. The lady who lived in the cabin, did so every summer for 69 years ~yikes~. She braided rag rugs from worn out clothing probably wool trousers and shirts from the lumber mill workers. This is where I come in. There is 1 photo of the interior cabin with her in the cabin. She has 1 foot on the rug & she is sitting on a rocker. Alas, this 1 photo is what I am working from. ughhhh.Well, Did not seem like this would be so challenging, I mean I had done this before -not on this scale...well actually it had been decades,now that I really think about it. The real last rag rug activity I did ended up being favorite flannel sheets that I did not want to get rid of but had become work thin. I began braiding them & made a bunch of coasters.

SO, I began by taking the wee photo to store after store looking for fabrics that appeared to be similar to what I could see in the picture. Then, the question`How much to get?' geeeezz. O gut got yards & yards. It was under 50.00. I took photos at 1st to share the progress. Then it turned out to be a quest to create modern `How to' ~ kind of a dossier for me. My mom found it brought back memories from her childhood on the farm. Her mom made rag rugs & all the 6 kids had to help with everything on the farm. Ripping the clothes for rag rugs & ironing was something she remembered, along with burning fingers on the iron & the fuzz floating in the air from ripping the fabrics & making piles. Mom called me many many times with things she remembered. I also had my memories from gran showing me & watching her. Gran always had a basket at the side of her chair, filled with rags. Being raised a `city girl' compared to the relatives up north-well, it took me YEARS for figure out what the basket of rags was about. That's when gran invited me to bring a box of rags with me next visit & she would teach me to make rag rugs.
~~~~~~~~the pictures are as follows: 1-iron fabric & fold measure & cut strips
(thank the Lord for modern tools~this being the Rotary cutter & large Lucite rulers)
I played with this for a while to get as much cut as quick as possible. I found 8 layers of these fabrics worked for the large rotary cutter to successfully to thru. This took me HOURS.
photo 2 is checking to see what width fits the metal braiders I had. Photo 3 is a pile half cut.
After all the fabrics were cut-I put them all in separate large ziploc bags & then in a tote bag.
~~~Now for the next step~~~~~~~to set this up in an area where I can work on this.~~
I will keep you posted
`k'