My Mum’s Sari Silk Rag Rug

Handmade sari silk ribbon rag rug in oranges, pinks and hot colours

As many of you know, I was taught how to rag rug by my darling mum, Victoria. She still makes beautiful rag rugs (you can see another one of her other creations here) and is a colour-lover like myself. Below is her latest gorgeous creation and, as usual, she has outdone herself. If you like the rug, …

My Mum’s Latest Beautiful Rag Rug

Sicilian Inspired Rag Rug

You may have seen a sneak peek of this beautiful rag rug over on the Ragged Life Instagram or Facebook page, but finally you get to see it in all its gloriously quirky glory. Below is the story of how this Sicilian Rag Rug came about (as told by my mum, Victoria) and plenty of …

September Sustainability Challenge

3D Baskets woven from yarn

For the month of September, I have gathered together a talented group of five full-time textile designer / makers for a friendly “Sustainability Challenge”. As part of the challenge, we will all have a month to make something spectacular, but sustainable from six balls of blanket yarn (offcuts from the woollen mills in Yorkshire). I …

Rag Rug Terminology – A Beginner’s Guide

Rug making tools laid out on a desk ready to use

It’s easy to get yourself into a bit of a pickle when talking about rag rug making as there are just so many different names out there for the same thing! What’s the difference between a proggy mat and a proddy rug? What is a bodger and why does it have such a funny name? …

Victoria’s Coiled Rope Basket

Coiled rope basket

My mum Victoria is the original person who taught me how to do the traditional British styles of rag rugging (shaggy and loopy) and she has years of experience under her belt. It was therefore interesting when, over lockdown, I wrote my second book featuring other rag rug techniques from across the world. Suddenly, the …

5 Questions Rag Rug Beginners May Ask

Elspeth Jackson from Ragged Life making a rag rug

There are many questions whizzing through people’s heads when they first start to rag rug. I’ve already answered a few of these crucial rag rug questions in my first blog post “7 Questions a Rag Rug Beginner May Have” and below is Part 2 with questions supplied by some of our wonderful Ragged Life fans, …

Our Rag Rug Materials Explained

Ragged Life rag rug materials and fabrics for rug making

Here at Ragged Life, we love nothing more than saving fabrics from going to landfill. That’s why, over the years, the number of rag rug materials that we stock on our Online Shop has got larger and larger. You should see the fabric mountain that is our studio!!! In this blog post, we wanted to …

Q&A with Rag Rug Maker Extraordinaire, Victoria Jackson

HI VICTORIA, WOULD YOU MIND TELLING US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR BACKGROUND PLEASE? Hello, I’m Victoria. Some of you may know me as the founder of Ragged Life, Elspeth’s, mum. She asked me to feature in one of these Q&As as I’m the one who originally taught her how to rag rug and …

Behind the Scenes at Ragged Life: July Flower Tree Cottage

The past couple of months have been pretty busy ones here at the Ragged Life HQ. Not only because I finally got around to finishing the final projects for my new book, but also because my mum and I have been renovating her cottage in the Lake District. Below you can find a brief overview …

Recycled Sari Silk Ribbon on the Ragged Life Shop

Colourful recycled sari silk ribbon for sale in the UK

At its heart, rag rug making is all about recycling. We use up old textiles and clothing that would otherwise go to waste; turning them into something beautiful. Over the past fews years, the Ragged Life team and I have made it our mission to not only target our own personal textile waste, but also …