Hey everyone! Today I am sharing a review of the book Rag Rugs, Pillows, and More, by Elspeth Jackson
Let's start with a blurb from the publisher:
You’ll be amazed at how simple and enjoyable it is to upcycle old and well-loved garments into beautiful rugs, pillows, artworks, bags, and other gifts, using just a few basic tools and some simple techniques. The book is arranged into three chapters: Home includes a selection of projects for fun and easy rugs in a range of colors and styles, as well as a shaggy pillow, draft excluder, wall hanging, and chalkboard frame. Gifts has wonderful ideas for unique items that you can make for friends and family, from a clutch bag to flower hair clips and even a brooch. Finally, Seasonal will inspire you to turn your strips of fabric into decorations and gifts to use at certain times of the year, from a rag-rugged heart for Valentine’s Day, to an unusual spring wreath, and some gorgeous Christmas baubles.
With lavish color photographs and clear, step-by-step instructions and artworks, crafters of all ages will enjoy making these projects. A comprehensive section at the start of the book covers everything you need to know about which fabrics to choose, what tools you will need, and what the essential techniques are, allowing you to discover how to update this traditional craft with endless possibilities of color and fabric combinations.
I have never made a rag rug, so this book looked really quite interesting to me! I'd seen them before of course, just never tried making any. One time I tried to crochet a rug, but I lost interest about halfway through.
In this book Elspeth shows you 30 different ways to upcycle fabric using the rag rug technique and not all of them are rugs! There is a great variety of different projects, like this stool below:
The book starts off with an introduction about what makes Rag Rugging so wonderful and then Elspeth shares what tools you'll need to get started and then all of the technique you'll need to know to make the projects in this book:
How to work in straight lines, cutting fabric strips, how to rag rug, etc.
There are some realllllly cute projects in this book, I may have to give Rag Rugging a try, and hopefully it works out better than my crocheted rug! Ha.
You can purchase this book here.