How to Make Bodkin Rugs
- 1). Wash and dry all of the old clothes. Cut them into strips half an inch wide and ¾ of an inch long. Sort them by color and set aside.
- 2). Fold 5/8 of an inch hem around the edge of the burlap or canvas and sew it down on the sewing machine. This will ensure the base cloth does not unravel.
- 3). Start in one of the corners and poke the tweezers through the weave of the base fabric very close to the edge. Make sure the points of the tweezers are not separated by any threads.
- 4). Put the corner of a strip in the tweezers and tug it gently through the base fabric until half of the strip is on either side of the rug. Repeat this, spacing the next strip about 1/16 of an inch away from the first, still close to the edge of the base fabric.
- 5). Continue until the entire piece of base fabric is full of cloth strips. Avoid using two scraps of the same color side by side unless they are all the same color.
