Stripping

Here's the next step in getting the blue jeans into strips to weave into rugs.

I've sewn a bunch of strips together in a long chain of strips, letting them fall in to a box that I've got behind my sewing machine.   When I've filled it up or run out of ripped strips (say that three times fast) I go on to the next step.

Here is a chain of strips ready to have the "ears" trimmed off and cut apart.

Each seam gets the extra material snipped off to reduce the bulk at that seam, 

eliminating alot of bumps in the rugs.

And as they are cut apart, they fall into a big box.  Key to the success of this method, is KEEPING TRACK OF THE END!  If I were to lose the end of the strip of strips, I would have one big old ball of knot!   I have a little slit cut into the corner of the box that I hang that end out of, and that is where I begin winding onto my rag shuttles when I'm ready to weave.

It takes an unbelieveable amount of strips to make each rug, 

so I fill up several boxes before I even start to weave.