Braided Rugs: Basic Skills 3

Adjustments for the center of the rug: Rounding the corners and sewing the first rows At the beginning (center) of the rug, there are sharp turns at the ends of rows. To make sure the rug lays flat, you have to make a minor adjustment in the braiding technique when you have to make a "sharp turn." For round rugs, the first several coils will have many adjustments. I do this entirely by sight and feel, and do not bother with counting and calculating. Also, you will be sewing -- not lacing -- the first rows or coils (round rug) together until you get "out of the woods" and into the main part of the rug where you only need to braid and lace.

These instructions assume you are going to lace from the "reverse" side of the rug. While braided rugs are reversible, the front or top side is considered more attractive. I lace from the reverse side, so that any lacing thread that is not perfectly hidden within the braids will not show on the front side. You must determine whether to lace from the front or reverse side before starting, because lacing is done from right to left ... and thus determines the direction of the coils and turns! So, looking down at the front side of a rug that will be laced from the reverse, the coiling will go in a counter-clockwise direction.

The adjustment in braiding that lets the coils turn sharply, attach easily to the rug, and make the rug lay flat is very simple: Instead of braiding all three strips continuously, you wrap the two inside (right-hand) strips. The sequence would be:

Right over center as usual
Right over Center again (Instead of Left over Center)
Left over Center, tug tight to coil

Playing with this a few times will illustrate how it forces the braid to coil. I had to practice this with rags several times before making a good center for a round rug. For oval rugs, the adjustments will only be necessary in places on the turns for the first one or perhaps two rows. A round rug may need this done in places for several coils, with fewer and fewer adjustments as the rug grows. Sew the braids together as you go, so you can make adjustments in the braiding technique as necessary to make the rug lay perfectly flat.

At this point in the center of the rug, note that you might want to change your pattern of colors after two or three rows or coils. If your later bands of color are going to be narrow, you might not want a huge center of one color pattern. And remember not to make the center too dark!

Braiding There are several (at least) techniques. The following method makes a nice round braid and hides the open edges of the strips.

Always keep your strips different lengths (so you will not have two seams next to each other in the braid, making bumps) and always keep the open edges on the strips facing right.

Keeping the open edge on the right as you braid forces you to "twist" or "bend" -- instead of fold over -- each strip as you bring it over the middle strip. Another way to think of it is to keep the same side of the strip always on top.

Keep the braid nice and tight. If you can push a pencil into the braid, it is too loose.

Changing color On a continuous-braid rug, you change only one strip color in the same place. This prevents a big lump that would form if you had strip seams lined up together. To create the illusion of concentric circles on a continuous-braid rug, you change the color (one strip at a time) at the same location on the rug.

On an oval rug, the preferred color-change location is the upper-right curve.

Since we are only changing one color strip at a time, the change in braid color and pattern is gradual and "evolves" from one row to the next. It can be fun trying to figure out how to get from "here" to "there" one strip at a time! This is what makes braided rugs so fun to do and interesting to view. Rugs that have perfect concentric circles of different colors/patterns are not continuous-braid.