I wish to make a rag rug. I have a great deal of regular weight cotton fabric from quilting projects. Everything I have read talks in terms of weight, such as how may lbs. of fabric you need, for figuring weft requirements. I think in yards. Is there a rule of thumb how to convert? Thanks,

Comments

Tue, 09/10/2013 - 18:45

mrdubyah (not verified)

     Assuming you mean cotton quilting fabric, generally speaking one may estimate 3 to 4.5 cloth yards of cotton fabric to the pound. That means a piece of cloth between 108" x 60" and 162" x 60".  This will vary because some cottons are heavier than others. The amount of weft you can make with this depends on how wide your strips will be.  Obviously a 2" wide strip will weigh twice as much as a 1" wide strip of the same fabric. 

     To estimate how much weft you can make from your cloth, cut 10 yards of strips and weigh them in pounds.  Divide the result by 10 to get weight, in pounds per yard.  Then divide 1 by that weight in pounds and you'll get yards per pound.

     Example: If 10 yards of strip weighs 0.3 lbs then each yard weighs 0.3/10 or 0.03 lbs.  That means that a pound of cloth will yield 1/0.03 or 33.3 yards of strips.  Hope this helps.