Handmade Rug - A Tutorial

Ive been after a patchwork rug for a while and to get one large enough for my lounge it would easily cost £100+ and to be honest i really didn't want to spend that so i went about seeing if i could make my own with carpet samples.

Tools:

Hot Glue gun
Scissors

Materials:

Carpet samples (amount depends on size of rug you are making) (these can be ordered from John Lewis and all leading carpet sellers)
Hessian or similar.

I cut the hessian to the size i wanted, this was just a trial run to see how it looked, if my idea worked and if anything needed taking into account when making it.

I took as many swatches as i need to fit the width of hessian in all the same size, as you'll find they all come in different depths and sizes and began hot gluing them to the hessian.

I did the next row in a different size swatch, for me this didn't really work and when i make my full size one i want to make sure that the samples are all the same type of carpet and all the same size so you don't feel the difference in the carpet when you step on it.

I continued with this until i had filled the hessian. I managed to pull it slightly out of shape when i was gluing so its slightly wonky on my finished piece.

I also glued each piece to each other as well as the hessian or it moves under foot, this keeps each piece in place.

Its found its home in front of the cooker, stops my toes getting cold when I'm cooking. It looks great but going forward i know what needs to be changed, also id place them an inch inside to allow for a binding round the edge on the rug as they are now, after using for a week and being hoovered, have began to frey around the raw edges.

Hope you give this a go too even if its just for an entrance mat, hessian is just a few pounds a meter and the carpet samples are completely free just don't be as impatient as i was for giving it a go because it takes a lot more than you expect to make one a decent room size. * Goes back to hoarding carpet samples*

L xx