I’ll Take That Rug, And Raise It Two Pillows

I never rule out flea markets to find smaller vegetable dyed rugs.  Most that I find, have been worn in well, and are in pretty good shape.  This one, which I don’t have a picture of intact, was a beauty.  Its home was in front of the stove and I loved it there.

But the rug started fraying.  And everyone was (mainly me since I do all the cooking) was tripping on the loose strings.  I kept cutting back the fraying ends, but the rug was dwindling down, and was starting to look pretty sorry.

I was awake one night, and for whatever reason I was thinking about this rug.  And then I had an idea:  what if I cut the rug in half, found some twill for the back and made two pillows out of it.  Couldn’t hurt.  It had seen better days as a rug, why not reinvent the wheel —  err rug??  So that’s what I did.

I cut the rug down, then scrubbed it with rug cleaner.  Once dried, I faced the “correct” sides together and started hand sewing with an upholstery needle and thread.  When I had sewn 3 sides, I turned the pillow so the correct sides were on the outside.   The size ended up being the exact size of a standard bed pillow.  Perf!!  I shoved the pillow insert inside and sewed up with open end with a hidden stitch.  (Well, as hidden as I’m able to do.  I’m not the most polished sewer.  Not yet anyway.)

I followed the same procedure with the second pillow.  All in, the project took me about 2 hours, not including drying time after I washed the rug.  They were relatively easy to make, and i wouldn’t rule out making more rug pillows.  Possibilities are endless.

These pillows fit in pretty nicely in our den.  To quote my Daddy, “looks good enough for a Stepper!”