What Ever Happened To Grandma's Rag Rugs?

Hello,

Have you ever wondered what happened to your grandma's old rag rugs??   And where did they come from and how are they made??   Does anyone still make them today??  Are they being used in today's homes and if so how??

Let's start in today's blog about what happened to those old rag rugs..  Grandma's old rag rugs became outdated and too difficult to make after the Industrial Revolution came about.  Those rag rugs were made from painstaking long hours of cutting up tattered clothing and sheets, or blankets that were beyond repair and putting them into 1" strips.  Then grandma would sew each strip together even if it was only 12 " long.  Strip after strip was cut until she came up with a rag ball, big enough to start that "rag rug."  She would then start to crochet a chain stitch approx. 12" long.  Then she would go around and around that chain stitch using a rug stitch.  Usually this tiny rug emerged and would continue to grow ONLY after she had some more old clothing to strip up..  It often times took 6 month to one year to make 1- 3 foot rug.  When she finished it, it was placed at her backdoor or frontdoor entry for people to wipe off their feet.  But soon machines could make braided rugs in a matter of hours and the art was temporarily lost but not forgotten.

That's where I come in.  When I was 6 yrs. old, my grandmother, a very detailed person, that she was, began to teach me the art of making rag rugs.  EVERY time my little rug curled up in a ball.  EVERY time my grandma would say, "that needs to come all the way out!"  I cried and complained and would not take out all my hard work.  So when I slept at night, my grandmother would take my rug out and redo it for me and wa-laa, it was suddenly flat in the morning!  This went on for several summers.  We moved away just as she was showing me how to make those gathered little pillows, people now call "yo-yo's.

52 years later I am still making those "rag rugs'".  Why do people like them now??  It seems like people are yearning for the handicrafts of yesteryear.  The quality, the handmade look,  and just to know that someone actually made this rug with their own two hands.  These handmade rugs are made to last, to be unique and mostly to be an heirloom that can be passed down from generation to another..as a link to our not-so-distant past.

To see my rugs just go to etsy.com/shop/ragz2rugs

Thank-you,  Janet Jones