As a little girl, I've often seen my grandmother make what she called a "tapis natté". I guess you could translate that by "braided carpet" even though I've seen it more referred to as a rag rug. She used to buy these big balls of synthetic fabric already cut in small stripes. Maybe polyester or rayon, anyway it was kind of shiny on one side. I loved to play with this chunky yarn, especially the small scraps left behind in the end (she kept them in a plastic tub just for the grand kids to play with). My cousin and I were always asked to help when we were home with her. I untangled happily the stripes as she braided them, even braiding them myself sometimes.
I often wondered where I could find this yarn that she used. I haven't seen any in stores in the recent years. You see, our apartment is somewhat not well isolated and the floors are cold, especially in the kitchen which lead me to think back on those carpets. A big one, right in front of the sink would be perfect, I though to myself...
At the same time, I'm at a point where I'm trying to take control of my craft stash. I need to stop it from growing and keep only what I will use and enjoy crafting with. All of this brought me to try and make my own fabric yarn. As you might know, there are many instructions out there on how to make yarn from old t-shirts and that's exactly what I did. In my humble fabric stash, I have some old clothes that I keep for future sewing projects, many of them were men's t-shirt. The colors weren't so pretty but I also happened to have a couple of dye boxes. So, I started by cutting 5 Large t-shirts in one inch large, long long stripes and dyed them in small batches in an old pot on the stovetop.
This took me quite a while to finish, cutting, dyeing, washing the different colors of stripes. Then, I braided. And braided. And braided! Arranging the colors as the pile of braided yarn grew bigger and bigger. When I had used maybe half of the yarn I had, I laid the braid on the floor. Arranged it as I wanted the rug to look and checking how much more yarn I needed to braided. When I thought I had enough, I started to sew the braid together. I guess you could sew it with a strong machine and heavy thread but I like hand sewing.
Here is the result. It's cozy and It keeps my feet a little warmer when I wash the dishes.
I guess my grandma would be proud of me, reusing old clothes to make something useful and comfy. She did pass me a lot of knowledge and I'm really grateful for that.
