I can’t say I’ve ever really been into “shabby chic”…

I mean, it’s cute and all, but it’s just not “me”. But when I got the idea to use up fabric by making a “rag rug” I soon realized I had entered into the “Shabby Zone”…

One of the first things I usually do when I start a new project is text  pictures of it to Christy and my sister. They both always like my stuff, so I kind of have built-in encouragement when I’m making something. I was serious when I said it seemed like more trouble than it was worth. I was using the biggest crochet hook I had, but it really needed to be larger. But, now that it had a name, the “shabby chic rug” continued to take shape.I photographed the “rug” next to Panda on the bed to give it a sense of size.I was trying to make an oval shape without really looking at directions on how to do it. It seemed to me it should be the same concept as the bottom of a baby bootie only bigger, so that’s basically what I did.

 Finally I couldn’t take it any more so I had to stop. My hands were hurting because of the way you have to grasp the crochet hook and push it through the fabric strips. It doesn’t glide right through like when you are using yarn. And besides, I wasn’t sure I was thrilled by the way it turned out.I finally decided that instead of a rug, it should be a decoration for the back of Foster’s chair. (Yes, I know, I said “Foster’s chair”…he pretty much thinks it’s his, as you can see here and here.) Meanwhile I was reading up on Pinterest about “rag rugs”. Even though I wasn’t crazy about my first attempt, I was still intrigued by the idea of getting it right. It seems the first thing you have to do is cut or tear tons and tons of fabric strips. I tried tearing them, but I didn’t like the frayed edges so I quickly changed to the cutting method.

It’s not as if I didn’t have enough extra fabric to work with!

I even learned a couple of tips on how to cut a long strip out of a relatively small piece of fabric.

I learned how to sew the strips together and roll them up into a ball. I even went to the fabric store and got a brand new crochet hook. The larger size worked much better, and the rug grew in size much faster.I decided to make this one a rectangle. It was too much trouble to count increasing stitches for the rounded ends. Periodically I stopped to take a picture with reference to my feet. My trusty assistant was pretty much there every step of the way.I kind of thought this could be a “hidden cat” picture at first glance.On most things I crochet, I like to do a border around the edges to make it look a little more “finished” looking. But by now I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to do anything else but finish that last row at the top. I have patience for a lot of things, but something about this “shabby chic” rug was testing that patience significantly. I will say that while it may not look like it, these rugs use up yards of fabric. So if you have the patience for it and don’t mind being covered with (and breathing in) tiny fabric fibers for a couple of days, it might be something you would want to try. For my part, I was already thinking a good title for this post would be “Don’t Try This At Home”, but I’ve already used that one.Still…I couldn’t just leave it with unfinished edges. So here you see the finished shabby chic rug on top of the area rug in my room. It would be slippery on the hardwood floor so for now I will just leave it where it is. I’m not sure I would want to make another one, but at least I got rid of a lot of  fabric scraps.

And if I can get Foster to stand on it like this, I can post it on Pinterest where it says “Tried this pin?”