Jelly Roll Rug

The Earth Day Blog Hop continues! I had to take a short break as I was mentally exhausted. It has been a lot of work! Jelly Roll Rugs are a great way to use batting scraps and leftover 2.5" strips of fabric. They are surprisingly easy and fast to make. It takes me longer to cut down the batting, sew the pieces together, and roll it up than any other step. You trim the batting scraps into 2 - 2.25" wide strips and sew them together with a zig zag stitch. *Note* The following  photos were taken from  two separate times that I made a jelly roll  rug. 

Then sew your fabric strips together.   Some people like to iron their fabric strip in half and then in half again. I don't. I like to either manually fold my pieces together or use a binding tool. 

Here is the tool I  use. It's a 1" double fold bias tape maker tool. You can also find jelly roll rug specific tools as well. I am  able to feed both the fabric and batting  through the tool. You sew the fabric and batting into a long tube and stitch along the open edge. 

I keep my roll of batting and my fabric  strip on the floor nearby. I have  to run kitties off periodically. 

After the tube is finished, it is time  to sew it into a rug shape. There is no rule of thumb, that I know of,  to follow, I just randomly pick a length for the center and get started. Once I pick the length, I fold the tube so that the sewn edges are both pointing in the same direction. Set your sewing machine to a wide zig zag and zig zag stitch between the two tubes connecting them with thread. 

When you get to the end of the row, you will bend the tube to go around the piece you started.  I push the tube toward my  needle to cause small gathers. This will allow the rug to lay flat and not turn into a bowl. You could make a bowl or basket, but for  this blog - we are making a rug.

Keep going around and around. Only try to add small  gathers at the curves. The gathers are really only needed for about 5 passes. After that, it shouldn't be needed, but stop occasionally  to place the rug on the floor to gauge it's flatness. 

Also be mindful of which way you are sewing. In the photo above I am going in the "correct" direction. In the photo below,  I am going the "wrong" way. Why is it the "wrong" way? Well, soon my rug will get too wide and I will start to hit my machine. It's best to have the rug stay in the open side of your sewing machine. 

Here's a look at my stitching. You can see the few small gathers. 

I love doing an ombre when I sew my strips together.  I have seen  some rugs that are scrappy and mix all the colors together, some that are monochromatic, and  some that are two toned with alternating colors. The choice is completely up to you. 

I  had to swap out cones of thread. This is a project that will use a lot of thread. While rethreading, I stopped to check my flatness and took a photo. 

Here is the first jelly  roll rug that I made. I loved the colors, but realized it was way too small  for my  intended use in front of this door. 

No problem! I unstitched a few inches and added to my  rug to make it  bigger. I soon realized that I really needed to make the next one more oblong as this one was ending up more round that I wanted. We used  it until I make my second one.

Here is my second rug. I thought I took a photo when I finished sewing it, but couldn't find it on my phone. I snapped this  one as I finished this blog post. It's very dirty - don't judge. We have been using this one for a bit and it's been washed a handful of times - and is definitely due for a wash. The cats LOVE sleeping on the jelly roll  rugs. They  really like the feel of them. I wasn't planning  on using the first one,  but they liked it so much I decided to keep it on the floor near my sewing room.  

I hope  you found this blog helpful. Jelly roll rugs are really fun  to make. I already have my batting strip roll ready to make another. I  really like  how easy they are to make and that they are washable. I did have to iron both of my run a tiny bit after the first wash, but subsequent washes have not required any special after wash treatment. 

The Earth Day Blog Hop will be continuing until April 22. Head over to my Instagram for some  giveaways.