How to Weave a Rag Pillow
A pillow with rag rug material, a fun way of recycling old textiles
This was a fun project! In Swedish, this weaving technique is called “slarvtjäll”.
All it requires are basic weaving skills and a simple loom with two shafts or a rigid heddle, floor or table. Even a weaving frame might do. And of course, some old textiles you can cut into stripes for weaving. I used old jeans, old shirts, t-shirts and some discarded children’s trousers.
It’s fun to choose colors and cut the old pieces of fabric into stripes.
Warp your weaving device with a sturdy warp, I used cotton 12/6 and 2 ends per cm. Calculate enough fabric for both the front and reverse of the pillow, either in width or in length. Choose wich colors and fabrics to use for background and what to use in your motive.
Sketch on bubble wrap.
Draw your picture on a large paper like brown packing paper, the reverse of gift paper or non-sticky paper for baking. Use your imagination! However, don’t draw something complicated, this technique won't render details very well. I chose to then transfer my drawing to a piece of bubble wrap we had. Bubble wrap doesn’t break, even if it’s folded many times over.
Start weaving about 8 picks with the warp yarn, remember to lay the yarn in small bows for coverage.
Start weaving with the fabric stripes.
Fasten the bubble wrap template to your weaving with pins.
Weave until you reach the start of your drawing.
Cut the stripes for the motive into bits of the right length.
With the shed open, lay the stripe on top of your weft pick. You might need to move it a bit around to get it in the right spot.
Beat and change shed, weave a normal weft pick without motive.
Continue to make inlays of your motive on top of every second weft pick. Compare regularly your design on the bubble wrap and your weaving.
Want to make some pile? Just lay a stripe under two warp threads, repeat over the stretch you want pile, and beat, change shed. Maybe you even want to make a knot. Not all fabrics make nice pile, the childrens trousers (orange) worked great, neither the t-shirt nor the dark red fabric worked as well (yellow and dark red). Just give it a try!
After you have finished the motive, weave the length you planned for. Finish with eight picks of warp yarn.
Make knots at the ends, start sewing together and choose a fitting pillow.
And now with photos:
Cut the stripes for the motive into bits of the right length.
With the shed open, lay the stripe on top of your weft pick. You might need to move it a bit around to get it in the right spot.
Beat and change shed, weave a normal weft pick without motive. Continue to make inlays on top of every second weft pick.
Compare regularly your design on the bubble wrap and your weaving.
Want to make some pile? Just lay a stripe under two warp threads, repeat over the stretch you want pile, and beat, change shed. Maybe you even want to make a knot.
I am not quite content with the pile on the dark blue pillow, the yellow and dark red fabrics didn’t work as well as the orange fabric. You’ll just need to test!
A close up of the yellow and dark red pile.
Do the finishing steps described above.
Remember to have fun!
If you have tried this, I would love to know the result and see some photos, just get in touch!