Last week, Alice, Allyson, and neighbor Nate went down to Maloy, IA, for the craft retreat at Strangers and Guests Catholic Worker Farm. We made willow baskets, rag rugs, candles, bread, fancy pattern weaving, and had lots of fun. I already made a trip down there earlier this winter to do some rag rug weaving. Here's some pictures of some steps of the process of making woven rag rugs. (above is an assortment of prepared rags, ready for weaving)

first fabric/rags are cut up to into strips of even thickness. If your fabric is thin, like old sheets, you would cut a wider strip (maybe 2-3") and if your fabric is thicker, like wool, or denim, you might make strips 1" or less. Partly it's preference - you might want a finer, thinner rug, or a taller, thicker one - but it does help if the strips all roll up to be a similar thickness. It's also good to avoid seams, especially seams that are perpendicular to the strips because they will bunch up and make a lump when woven. I have been collecting old, torn, and stained sheets and linens, and sometimes dyeing them fun new colors before making the strips.

next you sew the strips together in such a way that the seams end up being diagonal.

Here's a picture of Betsy, threading one bout of the warp threads through a little metal matrix before winding them around the loom.