There are many different ways to make crocheted rugs. This method comes from a newspaper article published in 1907 and it is a little different than many of the rag rugs made today.
For The Homemade Rug
Economical and Durable Floor Covering Easily Made
For a rug, collect about 25 pounds of flannel rags and dye them the desired shades. Tear into strips about an inch wide. These must be neatly sewed together, overlapping about half an inch so that the joining is strong.
Now procure a length of clothesline rope and commence to crochet the flannel strips over the rope.
This is begun in the center, like any crochet wheel for a chair back.
A large wooden crochet hook may be obtained from a needlework shop. The stitch of double crochet is used over the rope with the crocheted flannel.
As you go along the crochet is inserted into the previous row so that the circle grows with every pull of the needle.
In using two colors the paler shade should be used until the circle is about a foot across. Then use the darker shade until you have gone five times around the ring.
Return again to the paler color, repeating the alternate colors until the flannel is all used up, or the rug is the desired size, leaving the darker shade at the edge of the rug.
These are very economical to make, and are very quickly done, and are among the most durable of any of the homemade rugs, as the rope makes such a hard, strong surface before it is covered with the flannel.
Source: The Starkville news. (Starkville, Miss.), 01 March 1907.
