Our Handmade Berber Rag Rug in Mollie Makes Magazine

This month, my face and one of my rag rugs is gracing the pages of Issue 103 of Mollie Makes magazine – yay!

Elspeth Jackson in Mollie Makes Issue 103

That’s me!!!

For those of you who haven’t come across the magazine before, it’s one of my favourites for modern craft inspiration. Every issue is chock-full of colourful and contemporary designs from modern makers, like my friends Emma Jewell Crafts and Lucy from Peas and Needles. I guess that’s why I was so chuffed when they got in touch to ask me to make a rag rug for The Sustainable Issue.

Not only would I featured in one of my favourite magazines, but I’d also be flying the flag for sustainable living – what more could I ask for! Well, here is the Mollie Makes issue that I’m in and below is a little bit of the background and story behind the rug, in case anyone is interested. I hope you like the rug (I’m currently making a much bigger version, so watch this space) and that you feel inspired to make your own berber rag rug πŸ™‚

Mollie Makes Issue 103 Sustainable Issue front cover

I’m in issue 103 of Mollie Makes πŸ™‚

The Rag Rug Design:

The Mollie Makes team were pretty happy to just give me a simple brief then leave me to things. The brief I got was to create a colourful berber-style rag rug. So that’s what I set out to make. Firstly, I chose the size of the rug. I went for an 100 x 60cm rag rug, which would be a nice size for by the bed or in front of a chest of drawers. I actually used a piece of our Ragged Life Medium Sized Rug Hessian as I knew it was a practical size for around the house.

Next, I browsed photos of berber rugs and came up with a few rough designs…

Berber rag rug designs

These were the basic designs, which I would build detail into.

Although there were a few options, the classic diamond design in the centre won out, as I thought it would be the most fun for bringing colour into the design and improvising as I went along. To keep the crispness of design, I needed to use a rag rug technique that would keep the definition of the design, which ruled out shaggy rag rugging, where everything becomes a bit blurred. That left loopy rag rugging and short shaggy rag rugging. I decided to go with short shaggy rag rugging as it would keep the shaggy texture of the original berber rag rugs.

Next, I moved onto the colours. Whenever a design has a background, it always helps to choose the background colour first as it will generally have the most impact (even if subtly). Berber rug designs tend to have fairly neutral backgrounds, so I went with an off white / light cream background. White can look a little stark.

Cream fabric for making a berber rag rug

You can see that the fabrics I used for the background of the rug were a real mix of off whites. Some even had different coloured patterns in to break up the monotony.

And below are the colours I chose for my diamonds. I went for bright and beautiful jewell colours that would really stand out against the cream background. I also made sure to include a variety of different textures (everything from fleece and knitted jumpers, to netting and chiffon) to make the rug look more diverse.

Fabric and old clothing for berber rag rug making

This was the selection of clothes that went into the rug.

With the design and fabrics nailed down, all I need to do was the fabric prep and the making of the rug itself. Below are a few work in progress photos then photos of the final rug.

I was so enthusiastic about the commission that I cracked it out in only four days! I guess that just goes to show how addictive it can get πŸ™‚

Work in Progress Berber Rag Rug Photos:

I decided to start with the two central diamonds and work outwards, so prepped the fabric for the outside edge of one of the central diamonds first…

Rag rug fabric preparation with scissors

Rag rug fabric prep.

Then the rag rugging began… I started with the edge of the two central diamonds and worked my way inwards. It was easier to keep motivated when taking one diamond at a time.

Short shaggy rag rugging a berber rag rug

I started by rag rugging the first two diamonds in the centre of the rug.

Rag rug diamonds in jewell colours.

This is what the rug looked like when a few more of the diamonds had been rag rugged.

Once all the diamonds were done, I moved onto the cream background. I decided to rag rug one side of the diamonds first so that I could work the hessian in rows, but could have easily built it up another way. I prepped all my off white background fabrics and mixed them together in a bag to make sure that I didn’t get clusters of exactly the same cream concentrated in one area. This helped to make the design more symmetrical without losing the random nature of the design. This also meant that if I felt I was running short of fabric I could always add in another garment to the mix whilst keeping the variety.

Work in progress berber style rag rug

I rag rugged one cream edge first.

Cream short shaggy rag rugging

I tried to use off white fabrics / creams that had a variety of different textures to make the rug look more interesting up close.

After completing the first edge in white, I moved onto the second edge and then finally the middle…

Partially rag rugged rug made using old clothing and offcuts

Here’s what the rug looked like after two edges had been completed.

Nearly finished rag rug made on hessian or burlap using recycled materials

Here the rug was coming together…

And now, onto a few photos I took of the finished berber rag rug before it was sent to Mollie Makes…

The Final Mollie Makes Berber Rag Rug:

Mollie Makes Berber Rag Rug by Elspeth Jackson

You know I love a good shoe photo…

Colourful rag rug with cream background made by Elspeth Jackson for Issue 103 of Mollie Makes

I was really pleased with how the bright colours popped.

Cream handmade berber rag rug by Ragged Life

I liked the wonky diamonds.

Mollie Makes Sustainable Issue 103 Rag rug

Me playing around with a bit of Moroccan styling πŸ™‚

So, that was the story behind the making of my berber rag rug in Issue 103 of Mollie Makes Magazine. If you want to see the rag rug as photographed by the professionals at Mollie Makes then you can pick up a copy in various shops across the UK (and apparently the USA too!) I hope you found it inspiring and stay tuned to see the 200 x 140cm version πŸ™‚

p.s. subscribe to the Ragged Life Newsletter to be the first to see our latest rag rugs or stay tuned on our social media channels below πŸ™‚

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raggedlife/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raggedliferagrugs/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/raggedlife/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/raggedlife

As always, thanks for reading.

Elspeth x

Ragged Life Rag Rug Inspiration on Instagram

We’ve got lots of beautiful rag rug designs for you to take inspiration from on our social media channels.

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[…] Ragged Life Blog […]

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[…] a big fan. In fact, I’ve now appeared in the magazine a few times… In Issue 103 with my DIY Berber Rag Rug and in Issue 109 when I won the Best Established Business Award at the Mollie Makes Handmade Awards […]

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[…] a truly rich history of rug-making is Morocco. It’s this heritage that inspired us to make a Berber-style rag rug for Issue 103 of Mollie Makes Magazine back in March last year. In fact, we were so chuffed with […]

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[…] projects they feature are exactly my cup of tea. In fact, earlier this year they even featured my Berber style rag rug, so you know they have good taste […]

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