After admiring my new back door rug for a couple days, I noticed just how dingy my bathroom rug had gotten. After all, it wasn’t new to me: I’m pretty sure it is the rug Mom gave, already used, when I went to college and it has been in use ever since. The kids were surprised when I told them the rug is was pink and blue; it’s been white for as long as they can remember.
Some time ago I had purchased a jumbo crochet hook with the idea of making an area rug and I decided this was the perfect time to finally use it! I found several coordinating remnants in my stash, leftover bits as well as short yardages that the kids outgrew before I got them sewn. I used knits but wovens should work as well.
The first step was to create a continuous 1″ wide strip from each fabric. I cut some fabrics with and some across the grain; in general I found it easier to crochet the strips that were cut with the grain even if that meant more “corners.” I laid out the fabric with the fold perpendicular to my cuts, and cut through the fold but leaving about 1″ uncut on the opposite side.

I then turned this into a continuous strip by cutting through every other uncut bit with my scissors. I suspect there is a cleverer way to accomplish this but it eluded me.

I started by making a chain roughly half the length I wanted the finished rug. I then made rounds in single crochet, adding stitches as needed to make an oval shape that would lay flat. On the first few stripes, I did this by making two single crochet in one stitch; later I decided I preferred the look of chaining one wherever I needed to increase. Once I had crocheted the first couple stripes, I found it easiest to work while standing at my cutting table. The rug quickly got too heavy (and hot!) for my lap, and laying it flat made it easier for me to ensure that I was adding only enough stitches to keep it flat.

Because this rug is for my own bathroom, I did not worry when I did not have enough of a particular fabric to finish a round; you can see how some of the stripes are uneven if you look closely. On the backside, I trimmed the ends of each strip, turned them under, and secured with a bit of hand stitching. I hope that holds up in the wash, because my little boys seem to enjoy tracking dirt onto my nice new rug!

From inside to outside: striped jersey left from a Baby Boy romper, yellow rib knit that was too stretchy for sew, birds on white jersey remnant from a Sew Baby bundle, blue jersey left from coordinating sibling outfits 5 years ago, yellow floral jersey left from a nursing top for me, mint pointelle remnant from Sew Baby, and dolls on blue interlock left from a tiny Twirly Girl nightgown.












