Penny Rug Stitch

Penny purse the tutorial.

Penny rug stitch.

Although any style of embroidery stitch could be used the one most commonly used to applique the individual pieces of fabric in the penny rug was the blanket stitch. Make your own thimble. Sewing penny rugs is a time honored craft. Com lulu is at littleluluscrap.

There is a video here that will take you through the steps to make this stitch. I use enough thread to completely stitch around both the 1 inch and the 1 1 2 inch combined you will have to measure a few pieces of thread and stitch in order to find the length that is right for. It looks like this. The main stitch you need to know to stitch a penny rug is called a blanket stitch.

A penny rug is a decoration made of stitched together coin shaped fabric scraps. It is a great stitch for a lot of other things besides penny rugs. Folk lore attributes w ool applique penny rugs to table rugs created with woolen fabrics using coins or pennies as the pattern template often seen on vintage pieces dating from the civil war era. Designs were stitched with simple blanket stitch and other embroidery stitches and finished with a tongue.

Blanket stitch joining thread. Order a pre cut kit including threads and needles and make a penny rug. In the 1800s starting around the time of the civil war thrifty homemakers would use scraps of wool or felted wool from old clothing blankets and hats to create designs for mats or rugs using coins as templates they created circles and each piece was then stitched in blanket stitch fashion. Scraps of wool fabric and felt are cut and sewn together with bold blanket stitches into decorative designs.

Bright colors of thread that were different from the piece of fabric being stitched helped the pattern to stand out even more and also added another creative layer to the piece. For centuries women have hoarded scraps of wool and fabric to cut into shapes and sew by hand to charming penny rugs. Where do your talents lie. As with other folk art everyday life design motifs are popular on original rugs.

Penny rug tutorial part 1 2 3. I would machine stitch a lining to the back and then go around the edges by machine or by hand with rug binding. Use a back stitch to begin. Here are some more candle mats from our swap over at yourpaperpantry ning.

This is another technique and more time consuming. The makings of a penny rug.