Creating a “rag rug”—a floor covering crafted from discarded fabric—teaches students about the textile industry, material culture, and sustainability. Our rag rug tutorial provides a step-by-step guide to making a simple knotted rag rug that requires no special tools or previous experience with crafting. We recommend locally sourcing discarded textiles from community members or thrift shops. Piling up these discarded materials in our classrooms gives tangible form to the overproduction and overconsumption that characterise the twenty-first-century textile industry. As instructors of postsecondary humanities classes (in English literature and art history), we have found that crafting with these materials prompts deeper engagement with textile and design history and with the histories and legacies of imperialism and industrialisation. Topics we have covered while making rag rugs with students include: the history of the textile industry, the 19th-century Arts and Crafts movement, 19th-century poetry such as Thomas Hood’s “Song of the Shirt,” as well as LGBTQ+ artists such as Harmony Hammond and Daniel Fountain. For more information about crafting rag rugs in the classroom, and to learn more about critical crafting in the classroom, visit us at www.CraftingCommunities.net.
Additional Links:
https://www.craftingcommunities.net/knotted-rugs
https://www.craftingcommunities.net/rag-rugs-further-resources
SDGs addressed through this project: