Rag Rug - No Sew

Hello, hello...I am so excited to share this project today. Ever since I found Pinterest, I have been wanting to make this project...the Rag Rug, or some posts call them T-Shirt Rugs...I wanted a little one for my main floor 2 piece bath, which has really cold floors in the winter. I had been looking for some rug hooking material all summer, and then last week had a brainstorm after purchasing some anti-slip material for some other rugs...I thought to myself, "well, that looks just like rug hook material" I purchased it at the dollar store and still had a large enough piece to work with. So, my intention was to do a large band of white with the rest being chocolate. I proceeded to mark out the band where the white would go with a marker right on the grip mat. As you can see, the middle would be chocolate, and the outside edge right to the end of the grip mat and the "framed" part would all be white...that WAS the plan...

 I had an old white t-shirt I purchased at a thrift store for the project...and began to cut it up...strips about 3/4" wide x 3" long...lots of cutting...used every bit of the shirt up, the body, and the sleeves

 I had seen on another post, to pull the strips so they curl, but I don't think it is necessary, as they end up looking more like tubes instead of fabric scraps...but I had already done it...so ya gotta stay flexible when crafting.

 I began by doing every "stitch" along the inner line with the white, and I tied each one as I went, cause I figured I will want to wash it and I didn't want it to come apart. It became very clear at this point, what I thought was a huge amount of white strips was not going to go very far...so being flexible again, I opted for the one row of white as shown.

 For the chocolate, I purchased some knit fabric at a local fabric store...I was able to match my ceiling color exactly...yes, yes, my ceiling is chocolate brown. The store had a sale, buy 1 meter get 2 free...so for $8.00 I got 3 meters (1m = 39" for you Americans) Plenty of fabric and figuring I would have some left over for something else....NOT!!! LOL

 You don't have to be particularly careful when cutting the strips, they don't have to be exact, as you can see mine above are not even, you won't even notice once they are on the rug. Then the time consuming part came...all the chocolate knots...now I did every other stitch (I kinda treated the grip mat like cross stitch material) with the chocolate...so I would work row by row...and do alternating stitches...kind of like laying bricks...hope that makes sense. I was plenty thick enough doing every other one.

 At the end of 4 days of tying single knots...not sure how many, but thinking about 2000...I had sore fingers, but it was done. I got the bright idea to "bind" the edge with a long strip of the chocolate, and threaded it in a large needle and as shown in the picture, went through 3 holes all the way around...

 Almost done...just trimmed the excess grip mat...now, in hindsite, I wouldn't have chosen to bind the edge as when you trim it, you end up seeing a strip of the grip mat, which I'm not thrilled about, but binding was a lot of work and I didn't want to take it all apart...so it is what it is...I think if you just leave it and trim to the last row of knotted pieces, you wouldn't see the edge at all...but, oh well, live and learn. Below is the finished rug in my little bathroom...it's perfect...I love how it turned out, even if it wasn't completely the way I intended...thats why you have to be flexible when crafting, roll with the punches...now I can rest my sore and stiff fingers...before starting my next project...the ruffled tree skirt!