Upcycled bed sheets to cotton rag rugs

I enjoyed making these, probably 'cause I do "tedious" really well nowadays. The tedious bit, depending on your point of view, is ripping the bed sheet into one long 1.5cm wide strip.

This means you rip (or cut) down to almost the end, control yourself so as to leave the last 1.0cm intact on the edge, turn the sheet around, and start a new rip 1.5cm next to it, stop 1.0cm before the end again.

It's like creating a zig-zag up and down the fabric and keeping the edges intact. Then you wind the ripped length into one big, big ball of yarn. I wish I'd taken photos as I made these.

Then you get down to the crochet part. I use a 10mm hook and do a tight, dense stitch. This makes a firm mat which keeps its shape pretty well. It also means that the mat will be more durable.

I've only just sent my first cotton rag rug to the compost (it's now a weed mat) after it gave me seven years of service at the kitchen sink.

The other good thing about these rag rugs is they're machine washable. And being cotton, they're absorbant.

The yellow one with the green edging has gone off to the Naragebup Environment Centre. The metal ruler is my big 60cm one, so that might help with the scale.