It is about 4 feet wide by 5 feet long. A couple of the strips have broken/come unstitched and there are various levels of wear, depending on the make-up of the fabric. The rust/pumpkin colored strips have frayed badly, wearing completely through in places. On the far left, the light pink strips were originally a dark maroon (I think) that has faded, so the design isn't as good as it had been originally. Some of the strips have no wear at all!
It is a 5-part braid, and the strips are not folded over when they come to the edge of the braid. The strips are folded with the raw edges inside, and then held closed with a running stitch, and the strips are joined with stitches. The braids are not sewn together so much as laced together with a strong heavy thread. I'm amazed that that thread seems not to have broken anywhere, and some of the strips have.
I'm actually pleased that this is coming apart in places because I can see better how it was put together. It's almost (but not quite) as good as asking my grandma to show me how she made her rugs. Thank you so much, Uncle H, for thinking of me and sharing this wonderful gift.
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2 comments:
did I read that correctly? you are glad it is sorta falling apart so you can see how it is made -- oh my, you are starting to sound like ME -- I get so engrossed in the 'how to' & figuring out the process that sometimes I never get around to doing ANYTHING.
I think I'm done with NANI forms. What a relief.
I think that the explanation for the different stages of wear is that this is made completely from used coats, etc. and some of them probably were almost worn out when they were torn apart for the rug. I still marvel at someone (grandma in this case) cutting, and then stitching the strips lenthwise even before getting to the braiding. Some of the garments could be from Great-grandma W's day so then there were three women in the house. If the housework wasn't done by noon there was something wrong! Then all the rest of the day was for stitching of some kind.
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