New Life for a Little Rug

This is what the fringe USED to look like.

​Years ago I wove a little Rag Rug to use in front of my kitchen sink.  I finished the rug with twisted fringe and left the fringe about 4" long - probably too long.  Over the years I have had to periodically retie some of the fringe bouts,  but slowly but surely more and more of the bouts had become untied, frayed and I could no longer re-twist them and knot them back to their original length. In addition, some of the warp threads in the body of the rug had broken and the rug was really looking shabby and worn.

Remember: You can click on any picture to zoom in!

​Step 1:
I first decided to re-twist the fringe bouts that had come undone and to shorten all of the bouts to the shortest common denominator.  It seemed that I could get away with shortening them all to about 1 1/2". There are a couple of bouts where the ends were so frayed that I do not have high hopes for them holding up for much longer, but at least they are shorter now..

The newly shortened fringe

This shows a broken warp thread and a row of rag weft floats above it. These need to be repaired.

These are the only tools I need: a tapestry needle and the matching rug warp

​Step 2: 
​I gathered the tools I would need for repairing the broken warp threads The warp used in this rug was 8/4 cotton rug warp used double, and luckily I still had some on hand (this will not surprise anyone who knows me and has seen my yarn stash).  

So now all I need was a tapestry needle threaded with a doubled strand of the warp thread and a little patience. The weaving should be easy because the rug was woven in plain weave.

​Step 3 - Fixing the Broken Threads

• I started about 2-3" below the broken warp thread (photo 1)
• I wove along the same warp thread with the repair thread for the 2" until I got to the break (photo 2)
• At that point I have to weave over and under the rags in the same way the missing warp thread used to.  It helped to hold the needle in my right hand and put my left hand underneath the rug for support (photo 3)
• When I reached the end of the damaged area, I continued to weave along the same warp thread for another 2-3 inches.  When I finished with the weaving I checked the weaving on both sides of the rug.  
• When I was satisfied, I pulled on the ends of the repair threads where it entered and exited the weaving to "seat it" in the cloth.  
• Then I trimmed the tails of the repair thread and the broken warp thread from the surface of the rug.​

Photo 1: Starting 2-3" below the break. Broken warp thread can be seen at the top of the photo.

Photo 2: Weaving up to and just beyond the break in the warp thread.

Photo 3: Weaving continues above the break - over and under the weft floats.

My supervisor

Weaving is finished. The tails have not been trimmed yet. Lizzie is checking my work.

The finished rug. Hopefully with a few more years of life in it.

​All done!  And I think the rug looks better with short fringe anyway.

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