DE-STINKING FABRIC AND MAKING RAG RUGS

Recently, I was going through a Freecycle find (http://www.freecycle.org/) of several large black trash bags full of bed linens.  Frankly, I was disappointed.  I wasn't sure it had been worth my gas and time to pick it up.  Much of it was mildewed beyond rescue.  The rest of it stank nauseatingly of stale cigarette smoke, wet dog and various bodily fluids (human?  animal?), and I'm not sure what else.  I seriously considered closing up the bags and putting them right to the curb, with apologies to the trash men.  Then I re-considered.  I'd come this far and invested this much time in it.  Why not give them a chance?  And so, out on the sun porch, closed off from the house and with a window open, I cautiously gutted the bags and sorted piles.  I was very careful not to let any of that mess touch me or my clothing.  When I say it stank, I mean it made me gag, and I have a fairly strong stomach.  Anybody who's had an inhome daycare for 20 some odd years has learned how to eat, drink and carry on with all kinds of odors in the air.  This was wretched bad.  And yes, I should have worn gloves, because the stink clung to my skin despite many hand washings.  Yep, that bad.

So this is what I did.  First, I made sure there was no solid matter wrapped up in the linens.  Uh-huh, ew-w-w, but you never know, and I certainly did not want to wash a lump of... whatever... in my machine.  I then loosely filled the washing machine tub with like colors of linens.  Loosely, because I wanted to allow them plenty of room to agitate sufficiently to dislodge all the mess.  I ran them through a preliminary cool-water rinse.  Next, I washed them in the hottest possible water, adding nearly double the usual amount of home-made laundry cleaner (see my files).  I ran them through a normal rinse cycle, and then did an EXTRA rinse with a cup of white distilled vinegar added.  If that particular load still stank (most did), I skipped the dryer and sent them through another hot wash cycle and two rinse cycles, the last one with yet another cup of white vinegar.  Even the stinkiest loads were smelling sweet by then.  Now if I had a clothesline, they would have gone there to dry.  The sun would have helped purge them of all their sins.  But I don't, so I didn't.  I hope to correct that soon, but I digress.

Only when the linens were freshly dried and clean could I even begin to look at them closely and see if they were usable.  My disappointment renewed when I saw that most were threadbare-thin and pilled horribly.  They all seemed to be at best a 50/50 poly-cotton blend, which is not great for quilts in the first place.  A 60/40 can be workable if tightly woven enough, but 100% cotton is best.  The trouble with these is that whatever cotton had been there once upon a time had mostly worn or dry-rotted away, leaving behind the polyester base.  Although the polyester is usually still fairly strong when this happens, the grain is very loose and wobbly, and will therefore not serve well even for foundation piecing.  Phooey.  Out of all those bags of linens, I got maybe four or five bed sheets that were remotely promising for piecework, even with cutting around the rips, tears and stains.  That's still four or five sheets that were mine for the laundering, so I was grateful.  

So what to do with the rest?  With the cotton part gone, they weren't absorbent, so they couldn't even be used as throw-away cleaning rags.  Was it time to write off as a loss all my time, cleaning supplies and water from washing them?  Was it kick it to the curb time?  Nay, nay, my dear frugal compadres.  I suddenly realized I was looking at most excellent rag rug bones!  But of course!

Usually my rag rugs are a last-ditch effort for junked-out clothing that nobody would wear because of stains, rips or the like.  Most of what we wear is 100% cotton, so it's perfect for rag rugs, and is nicely absorbent for that purpose.  However, I do work in "bones," as well, which is my word for any fabric that has strength to it, regardless of absorbency.  For instance, there probably is no other legitimate use for 70s-era double-knits outside of rag rugs.  They're not at all absorbent, but those rugged strips help hold together the more absorbent parts and they wear like proverbial iron! 

As for how-tos on making rag rugs yourself, I bow to the experts on this.  My efforts are strictly primitive.  I don't care that much about design in them, and am content to have anything to show for all the rags.  These do eat up many yards of fabric.  I remember on one one small door mat style rug I used up nine voluminous dresses and three large tee-shirts. 

For equipment, you can go as expensive as you dare in the real professional looms, or as cheaply as you like and knock one together yourself with 2' x 4's and nails to hold the warp threads or strips.  You can see I've pressed my daughter's old crib side into service as MY loom.  You may also weave on any of a number of rectangular surfaces, like a piece of plywood, a large picture frame, a dresser drawer or even a simple piece of cardboard, as per this most excellent stop-motion video-- http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-weave-cardboard-loom-239221/  You'll be using fabric instead of yarn like in the video, but the principles are the same.

One word about what you use for warp.  If you use string, as I did here on this rug, make sure it is a very heavy rug-weight type of cotton string and that you pull it very taut on the loom.  Even so, the string is going to be strained in the washing machine, and will eventually break.  It would be best for long-term use to back your rag rug with a rectangle of edge-finished heavy scrap fabric, which will more equally distribute the weight of the wet rug.  You'll have to hand-sew it on, because no sewing machine needle will go through that rug!

This afternoon, before I had a chance to post this, I received the generous help of a 7-year-old in rendering one of the sheets into strips.  First I tore off enough of the sheet to get a straight-grain edge, and then I clipped into the selvedge every 2" for the remainder of the sheet.  I tossed it to her with the instructions.

"You mean, I get to TEAR it?!?!"

Indeed.  All of it.  Disbelief gave way to delight, and she wasted no time working up a real sweat ripping away at that sheet.  It was an hour well-spent by both of us as she happily tore the strips.  I sat nearby, rolling the strips into tight balls.  Once again, Tom Sawyer got that fence white-washed, and Jordan had an interesting story to take home to her parents.  She'd also tell them what we're going to do with that oddly-shaped chunk from the first tear:  shred it to bits and put it out in the trees for bird's nest building material.  Spring is around the corner.  They'll be needing it soon.

"Can we do this again tomorrow?"

We'll see, honey.  I felt almost guilty for a moment there...but it passed.  We'd both enjoyed each other's company while doing something otherwise boring.  We did something together that was meaningful on a personal level, but which held global potential.  We were making something for the home that would help protect it and beautify it.  Door mats keep dirt from grinding down carpet fibers or destroying floor finishes.  We were recycling.  We were being thrifty.  We were making the most of our resources and not simply running out to buy, buy, buy.  

Further, she'd learned that even a simple task like tearing a piece of fabric requires care and technique.  For instance, if you tear it too fast, you'll knot that sucker up so fast it takes you three times as long to untie the knot before you can proceed tearing it the rest of the way.  Not that she cared all that much one way or the other about the wasted time, or any lessons she might be learning.  She's seven.  She just enjoyed the one-on-one time and the attention.  Well, heck.  Don't we all? 

A post script.  This was done Day Two.  As Jordan came in the door after school, her first words were asking if we could rip some more sheets.  She...WE...had just as much fun the second time as the first.

Frugally yours,

Barbara H. Garrett
www.prepaidlegal.com/hub/barbaragarrett