Video Tip: How to Prep Fabric for Rug-Weaving

Weaver, author, and instructor Tom Knisely’s love of rag rugs is contagious, and you’ll see that in this video. Tom is renowned among his weaving students for his kindness, good humor, and seemingly infinite knowledge on the subject of weaving. He has been teaching handweaving for more than forty years and has helped thousands of weavers gain confidence and skills. In addition to teaching, Tom weaves professionally and is a frequent contributor to Handwoven magazine. You can watch his many videos here.

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Do you want to weave a rag rug, but don’t know how to prepare your fabric? In this video tip, Tom demonstrates how to cut strips from fabric, trim them where needed, join strips without sewing, and load shuttles. After watching, you’ll have the tools you need to get your rag rug strips ready, so you can get to the fun part (the weaving). You’ll also find the step-by-step written version of three of his tips below the video.

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Tips for Prepping Rags

Tip 1: How to cut strips from fabric

Tom is able to tear multiple strips of fabric at once, thanks to a few preliminary cuts.

1. Decide how wide you’d like your strips (Tom made his 1½"), then cut a cardboard template to that size.

2. Use your template to make several 4-inch-long cuts along one end of your fabric. It will look like it’s roughly fringed.

3. Gather and hold alternating fringe ends in your left and right hands, and yank your hands apart to tear all those strips at once. Tip: Kids enjoy helping with this step—give them one handful of ends, hold onto the others, and pull!

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Tip 2: How to trim strips for better weaving

He rounds the corners on an extra-long strip for easy weaving.

• For extra-long strips with fewer joins, cut strips twice as wide as you’d like. Make a shallow cut in one end, and use it to tear the strip in half—but stop tearing shortly before you reach the other end. Round over the square corners on that end (as shown above). Voilà! Your strip is now half as wide and twice as long, and the hinged middle will disappear in your weaving.

• If you’re weaving with separate strips of fabric, make 4-inch-long tapered cuts at their ends. When you weave, those tapered ends will nest against each other and you’ll avoid bulging areas where strips join.

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Tip 3: How to join strips without sewing

Short cuts near the ends of strips make it easy to join pieces without sewing.

1. Make a short cut (like a buttonhole) near both ends of the strips.

2. Hold the strips so the buttonholes are on top of each other, with the strips facing in opposite directions.

3. Carry the far end of the upper strip around and up through both buttonholes, and pull to tighten. Repeat to make longer strips.

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If you loved these tips, watch Tom’s full rag rug course. It’s free for Handwoven All-Access Subscribers, along with so many other on-demand courses.