We've seen how Apartment Therapy reader Hannah sewed together an area rug with contrasting stitches. And we love it. Here are some other examples of this creative solution to inspire you if you're thinking of doing something similar:
This idea opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for area rugs. The patchwork appearance can be very attractive and often, purchasing multiple small rugs can be less expensive than purchasing one large area rug.
Along the same line, see some beautiful patchwork area rugs featured on Apartment Therapy Chicago and Apartment Therapy New York, and Apartment Therapy Los Angeles.
Images: Conversation Pieces, Apartment Therapy New York, Lilac Silhouette, Altered Alchemy, The Crafts Dept.
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Comments (18)
I think the links and/or examples got lost from the post.
What a great idea! I've been looking for a rug to go under my small dining table for ages, but I couldn't find one that was an appropriate size/shape. Now I realize that two 2'x3' rugs sewn together side-by-side will be perfect!
Cool idea that has been on here before though. I would love to do something like this, but I'm saving up for nice large area rugs when I can finally buy my own place instead of renting apartments. All apartments near me have carpeting and I always give it a nice good cleaning before moving in.
Tip; do not try this with the cat loose; they simply cannot resist!
They have carpet remnants at the dollar store near my house. Now I'm inspired.
funny, I was just thinking about repairing an antique woven rug I bought at a tag sale. This gives me that little push I needed. Now off to the fabric store to get a curved needle..
My father did something similar years ago. He worked at Sears and when they were tossing the old/obsolete carpet samples he took them instead. He ended up with 50 or so samples with finished edges. He stitched them together and made to patchwork rugs for our house. Course there were some crazy colors and patterns, but they were durable and creative!
Where are the links?
Where are the rugs on the first picture from? I need them, so beautiful mix of colors!
I have been thinking of doing this. I wanted a 40" by 66" rug to fix an exact spot, good luck with that! Then I found a rug 20" by 33". Four would give me what I wanted, but I wasn't sure about sewing them together. I think I will give it a try now. Thanks AT.
To vickieta - Anthropologie's website has similar rugs to the first picture. It's call the felt pixel rug. I agree - love the colors! I thought about trying to do a diy version, but the idea of sewing literally thousands of felt balls together by hand eventually brought me back to reality...
Thanks NDprairiegirl, but apparently they don't anymore. I've searched the whole website and this rug doesn't appear anywhere, and I also googled it and all the links direct me to the Anthropologie home. Any ideas? :(
@vickieta -- I'm fairly sure this is the rug at Anthropologie that NDprariegirl suggested:
http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?navAction=jump&id=983068
You can find the first rug here:
http://conversationpieces.co.uk/2010/07/16/friday-im-in-love-with-our-crafty-felt-rug/
She bought smaller felt ball rugs at Papersource and sewed the together. But I've had trouble locating them at Papersource.
You can also buy a premade rug via HAY http://www.hayshop.dk/hay-acc/pinocchio-multi-colour.aspx
@DNPrairiegirl I've actually decided to make my own rug! Sewing the balls together is the easiest part of the project! It's the making of the felt balls that's tedious. They're too expensive to buy premade...one bag of 50 balls is $10.50, while I can make around 55 balls out of one skein of $3.50 yarn. It'll take me a couple months, but it's just something I can work on while watching movies or tv.
Oops, that was supposed to be @NDprairiegirl
cravethemind, I wish I knew how to do that, after a couple attemps to follow anthropologie's link, which was always taking me to the european site as I'm in Barcelona, Spain, I could go to the us site just to check the rug is REALLY expensive. Is it really that simple to do the balls? And where can I buy the yarn? In Spain felt is really rare and you can't find items made from it, I actually discovered it when I lived in London a couple years ago and fell in love with it! Any ideas please??? :)
Hi Vickieta,
The smallest rug on the Anthropologie website which is about 120cm x 180cm is $600. I think that's rather expensive for such a small rug!
Ok to make the felt balls you need to find 100% wool yarn. It has to be wool because acrylic yarns won't felt. I've bought mine at craft stores here when they go on sale. I'm not sure where you can find it in Spain, but I'm sure it's available somewhere!
I cut the yarn into 3-3.5m lengths and wind it into a little ball. It'll wind up to about 2cm in diameter. I use a large needle to tuck the loose end of the thread back into the ball, and then poke the ball a few dozen times with a felting needle to make sure the loose end doesn't come out. (A felting needle is a sharp needle with barbs along it to make the individual fibers of the wool get tangled together.)
When I have a few dozen made, I throw them in the washing machine in a garment bag. Hot water and sudsy soap. Then into the dryer. Sometimes they need an additional wash and dry cycle to get really fuzzy. If your yarn doesn't bleed, and as long as you don't use fabric softener, you can even wash them with your warm water laundry.
I somewhat modified the instructions I found here for making the felt balls. http://paintedthreadsprojects.blogspot.com/2008/10/making-felted-balls.html
For my 90 cm by 170 cm rug I'm using between 50-60 skeins of 200m yarn. I think all together my materials will cost under $250.
The balls are very simple to make, though my hands start to feel strained and I can't make very many at a time. I need to make about 3000 balls, so it'll take a while. :)
Thank you so much cravethemind! Your explanation was so clear! I love it!
I've tried to search for wool yarn here but it doesn't seem to be sold anywhere :( Sometimes Spain feels like the 3rd world for such a tiny variety of stuff. But thanks to the internet I might be able to find some around (I hope) although I'm not sure I will find it on sale! BTW, do you put the tiny balls into a panty hose like they're on the link you sent me?
You're right, the rug is way too expensive (at least for my budget which is more IKEA type) but if you have to do 3000 balls... well... that will involve a lot of TV watching! Keep me posted if you feel like it :)