Braided Rag Doily

The scraps for this came from the edges of the trimmed Fat Quarter Napkins I made.

I braided the scraps together, tying on new strips as I ran out of length.

It took a while.

Then I rolled up the braid to keep it from tangling.

I had some fun shooting the braid with my macro lens.

Then I started sewing it together in a circular pattern.

I just used a regular whip stitch. Nothing fancy.

I kept going …

… and going …

… and going. I even stood at the front of the class on three separate occasions and sewed this while my students were writing their final exams. Fortunately, they already thought I was weird, so this was nothing new to them.

The finished product was a little wonky and tended to curve in on itself, so I got it good and wet with hot water, squeezed it out, stretched it to the shape I wanted it, and then laid it between two towels under a heavy board for the night.

I ended up with this cheerful miniature rag rug, which would make a nice placemat for the centre of any table.