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How To Make Your Own Rug from Smaller Rugs

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hey there! I'm monica 

I pride myself on making amazing style and design accessible for everyone, regardless of location, budget, or ability! My design philosophy is rooted in authenticity + attainability - If I can do it, you can too! My work has been featured in countless publications, but I take the most pride in homeowners that have been personally inspired by my DIY ideas and have tried something in their own homes!

learn more about ME + MY BIZ

I was watching the Grammy Awards as I wrote this post, so I kinda felt like I should have wrote about how to Cut a Rug instead of Making a Rug!  Although, I am one terrible dancer… like really bad, I have no rhythm, so I default to the sprinkler and shopping cart.  If you want to see, well watch this video where we announced we had won our P&G gig- I apologize in advance.

(Bad Dancing starts at :36)

That’s crazytown isn’t it? And Jess was getting her spin on in that video. I think I counted 6 spins!

Anyhow, now that we’ve cut a rug, let’s talk about how you can make your own rug crazy inexpensively and easily!

DIY Rug

During our Farmhouse Episode of Knock It Off,  we knew we were making an insanely awesome farmhouse table and that it would need an equally cool rug, but we needed it to be almost 14 feet long. UGH!  That would have blown almost all of our budget, so we needed to score one on like 90% clearance (not too likely) or DIY one.

I was out shopping at Kohl’s for some kids’ clothes and on an endcap were these small accent rag rugs.  They weren’t close to the size we needed, but all the color drew me in and made me take a closer look. I checked out the tag and saw they were on deep clearance for 7 BUCKS EACH! I actually yelled in the store and looked around to find some stranger that I could share my excitement with.  No one was around, but I did notice a small child run and hide behind a rack of clothes.  Sorry Kid, this is the deal of the century! Immediately I knew that I needed to buy four of them and find a way to attach them together!  I literally floated to the check out counter. I was on DIY Cloud 9.

How to Make Your Own DIY Rug

Here’s what materials you’ll need:

Rag Rugs.

1 large plastic yarn stitching needle.

1 skein of heavy duty yarn (ask what will work for heavy traffic) .

Step 1- Get some rag rugs

So, if you don’t have a crazy Kohl’s experience like I did- no worries. You can pick up rag rugs many places. Our dollar store has really small ones, you can get them at Homegoods, and lots of other places.  Rag rugs work best for this process because we’re going to stitch through the strands.  Do a little math to figure out how big you want your final rug and how many small ones you’ll need to combine to get that size.  I needed 4 total rugs.

Step 2- Arrange your layout

Lay out your rugs on a flat surface and line up the edges to form a seam.

DIY Rug Project2

Step 3- Thread Your Needle

We used a plastic needle intended for yarn. The plastic is important because it was pliable and we could bend it a bit as we stitched.  We also picked a pretty neutral color that would just disappear into the rug- you actually don’t notice the seam at all!

Sew a Rug2

Step 4- Stitch Your Seams

Now, you guys know I don’t sew very much, but this was so simple.  I just started at one end, on the underside and looped over and under, combining the two together.  I’m sure there’s a name for this stitch, but just remember over under, over under.  Continue along all the seams and just tie a knot on the underside whenever you reach an end.

Make your own rug2

Rug DIY idea2

Rag Rug2

   That’s it! That’s all there is to it.  I told you it was crazy simple!

Colorful Rug2

Look how awesome it looks paired with the dining room table we made.

Build a Bench small

If you missed the world’s coolest IKEA hack- our farmhouse table- check out the tutorial here

IKEA Hack farmhouse Table

This project was part of one of our Knock It Off episodes and you can watch it online HERE.

KIO LOGO 300dpi

So, how many of you are running to Kohl’s to look for rag rugs?  You might see me there. I’m the one cheering in the aisles scaring young children!

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The comments +

  1. Alicia says:

    I made one of these several months ago. My advice would be to lay out your rugs before you start stitching. Rag rugs naturally vary in size. I ended up with one side uneven! I hid it under my couch, so it still looks awesome!

  2. Suzanne says:

    This is a fabulous idea! This is now added to my short “to do” list along with the mason jar lights — love that idea too! You guys rock!

  3. How very cool! A friend invited me over to see this crazy awesome rug. It’s just like the dollar store rag rug i recently put together for our hallway. If i can think like you, I’m pretty stinkin’ happy.

  4. […] Last 3 in my top 10 are all very similar tutorials. Nellie Bellie and East Coast Creative used smaller rag rugs to create a larger rug. This idea is obviously popular (cough cough, scroll […]

  5. Sara says:

    I love this idea! How did you hide the fringe on the inside edges of the rug?

  6. […] Check out how we made our huge Rag Rug for under $50 HERE! […]

  7. […] With a bunch of colorful old rugs, yarn and thread you can make an awesome one. For more help just follow the tutorial from eastcoastcreativeblog.com […]

  8. J says:

    I wonder that, as well . . . :-/

  9. Bipasha says:

    The rug & table combination looks great, and the fact that you made them yourself is just so cool!

  10. […] Small Into Large – Turn small brightly-colored and patterned throw rugs into one large rug. It’s simple with this DIY rug project. […]

  11. […] Small Into Large – Turn small brightly-colored and patterned throw rugs into one large rug. It’s simple with this DIY rug project. […]

  12. […] Small Into Large – Turn small brightly-colored and patterned throw rugs into one large rug. It’s simple with this DIY rug project. […]

  13. angel says:

    Another way to do this rug, which is easier I think is to use carpet tape to stick them together…Ive made several this way. My finger hurt to bad to sew like this…Sothe sticky carpet tape works really well…

    • Diana Trotter says:

      Hi Angel,

      Thanks for the tip, would love to see a photo of what you did. Thanks for stopping by the blog 🙂

  14. Jenny Perry says:

    What size were you’re rugs ? Also did you cut the fringe on the end off? Thanks!

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