Chevron Friendship Rug Tutorial

Remember the days of friendship bracelets? Everyone was making them and right now they are coming back in style. Those things are everywhere! Why not join the craze and bring the look into your home? Just make a pretty, simple rug and you're in.

Above is the finished product, below are the steps to get there.
1) Pick your colors. I went to Goodwill and found some plain cotton t-shirts. They ranged from $3-$5 so I'd say they were fairly cheap or you could even use some of your own old ones. I used 5 colors but you can really use as many as you want.

2) Begin cutting the strips. I cut my strips a little over an inch and a half. Lay the shirt flat and cut the strips staying parallel to the bottom hem.

3) Next I used a cardboard piece to tape my strips to. You'll need two of each color to start. You'll follow an ABCDE EDCBA pattern.

4) Next comes the weaving part. If you remember how to make the bracelets this will be really really easy. If you don't this will be easy, just gotta get the hang of it.
First, start by using your outermost strip (mines red) to cross the one next to it so they look like a 4 (or a backwards 4 if you are on the right side).

Next loop the red strip around the black and over itself.

Finally, pull that tight so it is all the way to the top. I recommend not pulling it too tight so that your rug has a little give to it. Continue doing the wrapping until you get to the yellow strip in the middle, then repeat the process on the other side. Once you have both the reds woven into the middle you need to use the right piece to make the 4 around the left piece like you had been doing before; see the picture below. Continue this process until you have gotten your section as long as you want it. If one color strip becomes to short to use just sew another one on to it.

5) Trim the ends so they are just barely poking out of the end. Then, sew the ends up so that it can't fall out. Don't worry about how this looks because we will hide it later.

Now you have one section complete! Repeat making sections until you have the rug the size you want. I did three but I think I will add more later.
6) When you have all your sections completed just sew them together. I laid them down with the side I wanted showing facing the ground. The sewing doesn't have to be great since this side will be facing the ground.
7) Cut some strips about 8 inches long. Use those to tie some fringe on the sewn edges to cover it all up. If you want to help keep your rug from slipping around, use some hot glue on the back :)

See, wasn't that easy? Now you have an awesome, original rug.

Check back next weekend for my next tutorial, making some super sweet original throw pillows.