homsteader's rugs

[jimbo]

I was reading a compilation of old timers' recollections from my home town area, and saw something that interested me but that i didn't understand. Maybe someone here can explain.

A couple people who were interviewed talked about times in the late 1800's of having rugs made of strips of fabric that they fastened wall-to-wall over loose straw as a "pad". They said the straw when new made the floor like walking on a mattress. Then the clincher. They said that once a year, they'd take the rug apart, wash the strips, and hang them out to dry, then put it back together and install it again. Could these be crocheted rugs? Wall-to-wall?

And here i thought it was incredible of my mom to make rag rugs that were 3 - 4' oblong throws.

Any historians out there to enlighten me?

[Alosha]

While I do several types of rug making, that is a new one on me. Have you tried checking out;

http://www.netw.com/~rafter4/

It's a wonderful site dedicated to preserving the history & art of rug making.

Alosha:)

[jacqui]

I have never heard of that here in Oz but it would be sensible to keep the feet warmer in the kind of cold they would have endured. If you find out more Jim i'd be interested.

[Chrome Kitty]

I couldn't find how the rugs were made, but I thought this was interesting:

 

The sods were lain, grass down, layer by layer. A plumb line was used, both on the inside and outside, to keep the walls perfectly perpendicular. Short, pointed posts were placed in each corner, at floor and ceiling levels. The smooth sides of these were flush with the inside wall surfaces, and batting was nailed to it. Batting was used to hold rag rugs on floors and ceiling canvases (usually flour sacks sewn together) on ceilings.

 

On the floor, prairie hay, laid under the rag rugs as a pad, disintegrated, causing dust, which added to the dust that sifted in from the outside, covered everything, making cleaning a constant, and impossible task. Some homes simply had bare earthen floors, making for a muddy mess when it rained.

 

A quote from the author: " We had air-conditioning. Those thick walls of sod made the home warm in the winter (up to a point) and cool in the summer. We had running water -- it ran through the roof, to someplace where we didn't want it, such as under the rug or onto the bed. And our house was wired -- guy wires were fastened through pieces of lumber to give the walls strength to stand just one more year. We had an inside toilet -- it was portable."

 

Source: "A Sod House, by Flora Dutcher, from The Journal of Geography, Dec. 1949

[sunshine1977]

I don't know for sure, but it sounds to me like a layer of straw was placed on the floor and then strips of fabric, i.e. from a bolt of cloth, were basically rolled out over the straw to cover it and probably tacked along the edges of the walls to hold it in place, sort of a very primitive version of wall to wall carpeting!

 

Laurie

[kariholtz]

Could have been a loose braid or weave. could also have been stitched loosely (easy enough to rip out and restitch back together)

[Chrome Kitty]

I was thinking strips woven together like those construction paper placemats we made in elementary school. I can't imagine them hand sewing scraps together & then taking it apart again or ripping apart a crocheted rug or one made on a loom. From my Little House on the Prairie history lessons:lol, one thing I'm sure of is that the rags must have had a long life before they'd end up on the floor. Fabric went on a long journey between clothes and rags.