Toothbrush Rugs-A Frugal Passion
Tearing up thrifted sheets into 2 inch strips, I stopped to consider how many different kinds of materials had been used to make my toothbrush rugs. Most of my rugs had been made from old bedsheets found in my linen closet, rescued from thrift shops or shared with me by family and friends.
Toothbrush rugs are a wonderful way to repurpose other materials as well. My sons used rugs made from old blue jeans in their bedroom for years and the rug I step out on after a shower is made from several old knit dresses once found hanging in my closet. A rug by my side door is made from old khaki pants that were stained or no longer fit for pant wear.
One of the rugs dearest to my heart drapes over a chair and was made from scraps of fabric left over from a homespun cloth napkin project of years ago. Although a bit crooked from my rug beginnings, I just love its country look! Presently I am working on coasters made with the same technique and fashioned from a well-used men's dress shirt.
Toothbrush rugging is one of my frugal passions! Although not gifted with great handwork skills, I love anything homemade. When homemade can be made from something already in hand, I am hooked. My apologies for not giving directions. I have no such talent to succinctly describe the process. I can however recommend some websites that have been helpful to me. I have purchased patterns from auntphillys.com and an instructional video from ruggingwithjulie.com.
The tool that was originally used to make these creations was an old toothbrush which came with a hole on one end and filed down on the other end to make a needle. These needles are mass produced today and I purchase mine at colonialcrafts.com. I would add that if you might be considering trying to make a rug from blue jeans that this kind of needle be used as the larger eye aids the use of thicker fabric. For your information I have no connection with any of these recommended sites.
If you might be interested in the history of these rugs check out this site. Over the years I have made toothrugs that were oval and heartshaped. My favorite rug to work on though is a round one. These seem to take less thought in terms of the starting and execution of the rug. Since most of my rugging takes place while driving in the car with Husband or watching a video, I appreciate the simple process.
Has anyone else tried toothbrush rugging?
Can you recommend a favorite repurposing craft?
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2 Responses to “Toothbrush Rugs-A Frugal Passion”
October 19th, 2011 at 6:05 pm
I’ve never made a toothbrush rug but it sounds interesting, and by your pic it looks really nice. I like to upcycle, recycle, repourpose, whatever word people like to use, used items into new things that are useful, I am all for keeping stuff out of the landfills!
I am a seamstress by trade for many years and like to use my crafty talents to make these things. I make lots of things so hard to list them all but here are some examples.
cut scraps of fabric into squares and make quilts out of them to donate to project linus.
Use blue jeans to make cute tote bags, christmas stockings, also cut into squares and use for quilt designs.
Use t-shirts & womens & men’s shirts and make sundress out of them and donate them to “Dress a girl around the world”…for the ones that have a stain on them, I get creative and sew a pocket over that part…but I really try to use ones with no stains. I buy them at the resale shop
October 20th, 2011 at 12:26 pm
How interesting! I’d never heard of this craft before.
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