Note: you may wish to refer to part 1 before continuing with this post. Enjoy!
†
JMJ/AMDG
"The hands should be at work, the heart with God."
- Saint Mary Joseph Rosello
I highly recommend the book above, How to Make Braided Rugs
- by Sally Clarke Carty (1977).
In our last episode, we left Grace diligently braiding the strips, getting them ready for assembling our cotton rug. I took out a few books from the library on the subject, and after braiding and trying to lace ours, I found the book above; (figures!) and IMHO, it is the best one! Sally tells it in an orderly and brief fashion, in a language easy for a novice to understand (moi), and also reminds us often that even though there are tried and true methods that do work, it's your rug and you can make it any way that you wish! I like her thinking!
I am sewing the first three rows together with a gray Coats & Clark Button & carpet thread. Hand-sewing them is done before 'lacing' the rest of the braids, because initially, the braids are going in different directions and will not form well until they are all traveling the same way:
click each image below to open in a handy pop-up window for larger viewing:
I blocked the basic shape with steam, then let it dry a few minutes to 'set it':
There were times it was tough to get the needle through the fabric, and I would get such an 'ouchie'! Using a needle-nose pliers, I could both feed and pull it through easily, whenever I came to a stubborn spot:
Getting ready to lace my big yarn needle with the same thread, (or you can use a circular needle, or bodkin), I began to lace the braids together, traveling in-between the braid loops, making both a secure and invisible union:
In this image, you will see the needle going through one loop from the inside loop to the new outside loop, running the needle and thread in-between, but not sewing through the fabric:
When going around the curves, I chose places where I needed to pick up 2 loops from the outside and cross back inside to the usual one loop, constantly increasing around the outside curves, so it would not 'cup' or 'pull'; see needle going through 2 outside loops below:
Since was is our first attempt at rug braiding, our braids were
inconsistent and very loose, making it nearly impossible to braid
it evenly without it cupping (popping up in sections) or simply looking like a
mess; so instead of re-braiding the long yards of braid we spent so much time accomplishing, I decided to do it the old-fashioned (and yes;
hard) way: I
hand-stitched it entirely together, rather than lace it. That's what took me so gosh-darned long!
How, you might ask, does one 'end this ongoing saga'?Gradually! - I cut each braid by staggering their lengths, about 1 inch from the one before it, tucking each end, one at a time, into one of the loops like tucking a toddler into a blanket, and stitching it in as invisibly as possible, the wrapping the next one once under that, repeating the stitch-in-the-loop thing, and again with the third braid over the top gain:
After tidying up the ends, I put it on my plywood floor (soon to be re-covered) and blocked it by pressing the 'living daylights' out of it with hot steam (only on cotton! not synthetics!) to set the polyester button & carpet thread I used to sew the braids together. I left it to dry completely for a few hours, then whipped it onto the living room floor, to be severley abused by my loving, but 'not-so-neat' family and 2 old dogs with incontinence.
We named him, "Willie". (That's short for "willie-nilly").
Do yourself a favor: get the book.
Making a Braided Rug: Part 2 of 2
