How to make a Proddy Rag Wreath

These proddy wreaths are so much fun to make - easy to do with just a little preparation time, and the best thing is, you can make them from recycled shirts too!!

So, first of all, find yourself a polystyrene wreath - the choice of size is up to you.  The bigger the ring, the more fabric you will need.
You will also need PVA glue, a paint brush, and your fabric.

I would say half a meter of fabric for a 250mm ring to work 4 rows.

Cut the fabric up into 2.5cm (1") squares - you don't have to be too fussy as the finished look is 'raggy', but keep them roughly the same size.

Take a paint brush (the handle end) or an old knitting needle, dip into the PVA glue and make a hole, not deeper than 1cm, into the centre of the wreath ring.

Now, take a square of fabric, position it over the hole, dip your brush back in the glue and poke the centre of the fabric into the hole.

Add another piece a centimetre away..... and another.....

Continue adding the rags at one centimetre intervals all the way around.

Add a row inside and an row outside the original row.

You might want to add more rows if you wish, and even cover the whole ring, but as one side will be against a door or wall, there isn't really any need.

Add a ribbon loop to hang and there you have it - a beautiful rag wreath with not a lot of effort.

Fun wasn't it?

If you prefer to watch a video of this tutorial, you can find it over on my You Tube channel HERE.

Rug making at The Devil's Porridge Museum

Last week I was invited to The Devil's Porridge Museum to do a demo on Rag Rug Making. 

This was part of the "Pack Up Your Troubles" event to celebrate the 100 year birthday of the townships of Eastriggs and Gretna.

My brief was a tradtional style rag rug which might have adorned the floors of houses in years gone by.

I hemmed some hessian and got to work on a traditional(ish) design.

I was situated in the 1940's "house", a little section of the museum made up to look like those days of old.  I remember loads from this little corner, from my Grandparent's house.  The old Singer sewing machine, the carpet sweeper, the vintage typewriter... and much more.

Now, the donated fabrics that I had to work with were obviously modern and not like the traditional wool coats and bits that they used to use to make the rugs, so there was a mixture of modern materials with a traditional element, which I think works very well.

People got stuck in and had a go, the rug is large and will need to be a big community effort to get it all finished.

Although those fabrics were bright and colourful, at the end of the session I could see that they were really going to work well.

I just hope someone remembers to send me a photo when it is finally done, as I would love to see it completed.

If you have never been to the museum, do go. It's only a few miles from J44 of the M6 and a very interesting little place.

You can find out more about it here...

http://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/about/

"Craft Yourself Silly" Proggy Owl - a review

Hobbycraft have just got this new kit in, and I have to say they are the cutest kits I have seen in a while.  They are from "Craft Yourself Silly"  (or you can buy them at Hobbycraft too)

So, I would make one for display, well why would you not?

Nicely packed with everything you need except a prodder.   Ahh, now let me explain this bit - in the North East they call this way of rug making - "proggy", while here in Cumbria it is more commonly known as "proddy", so if I refer to it as "proddy" as we go along, that is why   :)

Back to the kit - no prodder, but of course I have loads myself as I have done the odd rag rugging course in my time  :)  (You can buy a prodder separately)

You get hessian, fabric, supposedly eyes - I seemed to be missing the eyes, but had some in my stash so all was not lost.

I chopped up the lovely soft fleecy fabric as to the size shown on the instructions, which is a bit smaller than when I do a rug, but you wouldn't want too long a piece for this project.

And got to work.

Now, hessian is a bit of a pig when it comes to fraying, one wrong move and you have a load of threads of sacking laying about (it sticks to everything, trust me!)

The instructions were to turn over the hem and bind it in with your first strips, what I found was that the hem just really wasn't quite deep enough and the hessian started to fray as quickly as I worked.  Being a run maker anyway, I managed to work round it.  Normally I would have bound the edges of a rug with a quick stitch on my sewing machine - my advice would be to be VERY careful when doing this bit as if you fray the hessian too much, you lose it basically.  And for a beginner to rag rugging, this might be the trickiest past of the kit.

See?  it is starting to fray beyond the pieces of prodded fleece.   My advice would be to either cut a larger hem (there is enough hessian to do this) or bind it in before you start.

With the wings I cut a slightly bigger hem and it worked better, although it ended up for the whole wing I was working through a double thickness of hessian.

Another slight grumble is that these solitary seven strips of fabric was all I had left at the end.  I actually ran out of the beige fleece for the owls belly, so had to remove a row around the belly edge too give me enough to fill in the belly part.  Obviously then I used a little more printed fleece and was only left with this.

This means if you cut the strips every so slightly bigger than directed, you are not going to have enough to finish the project.  Again, be careful on this bit.

After sewing him together. which trust me, is no mean feat - you need a sharp pointed needle and a good strong thread, he was ready to stuff.  (you need to supply your own stuffing.

And here he is - or I should say "she" as Charlie, from Hobbycraft in Carlisle has decided that she is to be named Bet - as in Bet Lynch from olden days Coronation Street.

If you would like to see her pop into the Carlisle branch  (branch - no pun intended!  Boom Boom!)  where you will find her sitting atop of the kits.

You can also get penguins, pigs, tortoise - all sorts.

Now, the conclusion.   

Apart from the two grumbles I have moaned about, would I make another?

ABSOLUTELY!   It ended up being so cute that I wanted to keep him/her all for myself.  So I am going to have to make another one.  I also want to make a penguin...... and a parrot..... and a sheep - definitely a sheep!

Rag Rug Workshop at Hobbycraft

Yesterday was a new workshop for me, a rag rugging one at Hobbycraft, Carlisle.

6 lovely ladies all turned up with some rags in a bag, and we set to work.

I had hemmed all the hessian sacking the day before in preparation, to make things a little easier.  When you go to a class you want to jump right in and play, not do boring prep work  :)

Old t-shirts, old jumpers, old pyjamas, all being chopped up and prodded into sacking to make cute and colourful rugs.

It was a great day, planning to do another one in the not to distant future, so keep an eye on my workshops page to see what's coming up   :)