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conscious living: from rags to rugs

I stumbled upon these fabric shag rugs from Urban Outfitters over the weekend. Made from multicolored strips of cotton and polyester, these rugs look pretty fancy, but, mind you, they’re not so difficult to make. Additionally, the design allows you to use scrap fabrics and even old cotton shirts as alternative raw materials. That’s very environmentally friendly!

Above is a “spaghetti shag rug” from Thailand made from unused, reclaimed t-shirt manufacturing remnants. The fabrics were cut into thin strips and hand-hooked into a shag rug.

The same technique was used by Elle of Xoelle when she made this plush gray rug. Because she also used old cotton t-shirts, the rug is soft, comfy and safe for her little one to play on. Her blog post here offers a step-by-step guide  on how to make this project.

Instead of latch hooking the strips of fabric, Stefanie of A Common Thread hand-knitted the fabric strips into a fine-looking bath rug. You can find her tutorial here.

If an area rug is just too big of a project for you to handle, you can start small by making a pillow case/cushion cover. V and Co has a tutorial on how to make one. This, however, requires you to stitch the pieces on a fabric backing using a sewing machine.

Great recycling projects, right?! Your old shirts and bed sheets can now have a better, brighter second life!