Lou has taught peg loom as part of creative wellbeing and rehabilitation programmes for the last 15 years and recently demonstrated repurposed fabric mat making at the BN44 Repair Café. The Pegloom Project is an initiative to promote recycle and repurpose culture and encourage others to learn skills and take action to live a more sustainable and satisfying life.
Cotton and cotton jersey clothes too worn for the charity shop have been saved from the rag bin as Lou repurposed her family’s old t shirts, shirts, legging and vests into doormats, much in the old spirit of rag rugging.
Now you too can learn the ways of the pegloom and start making doormats and more, using your own repurposed fabrics.
The Pegloom Project
“I love learning and passing on art and craft skills and I am passionate about repurposing and recycling. My family love seeing their old clothes repurposed into beautiful and useful mats which we use around the home.” Lou
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More Information.
The peg loom is one of the oldest and most simple forms of weaving loom. It’s simply a wooden batten with drilled holes (always an even number) with wooden dowels in. Each dowel has a drilled hole which the warp (up and down) threads go through. The weft thread (which runs across the weaving) is woven around the pegs and when the weaving reaches the top of the row of pegs, each peg is pulled out of the batten one at a time, and the weaving pushed down it’s warp thread and the peg put back into the hole.
When the weaving reaches it’s desired length the warp threads are cut and knotted.
Peg loom weaving can be done with wool, raw wool, wool tops (often used for felting and needle felting), fabric strips and even plastic bags. The warp threads should always be a stable thread with no give – ie. not knitting wool which stretches and can pull apart. I use twine string warp for making door mats.
Peg looms come in many sizes, usually wooden but sometimes the smaller ones have metal pins.
Rugs, mats, seat pads, scarves, bags - basically, anything square or rectangle – can be made on the peg loom.
For making door mats I find cotton jersey is best as the main fabric - the slight stretch keeps the weaving together. I usually combine cotton jersey with more rigid cotton fabrics like shirts. I use old worn out t shirts, leggings, vest tops, shirts and bedlinen to harvest my fabric from. Cut the fabrics into the longest strips you can get out of the pieces, cutting a spiral around the body, leg or arm of the garment.
Peg loom is a great social craft, like quilting, perfect for chatting over. It’s also good for improving hand strength and dexterity and for mindfulness, as an activity for relaxation and to improve wellbeing.