Remember when I had made a pair of zooris for myself and Hubby? Well, the rope I used for the frame was simply too hard and over time, the zoori itself was very uncomfortable. 😔😭😖 So, it sinply sat in my closet with the rest of my zoori material until I could figure out a better frame. Now that I had some free time, I was looking over my zoori stash. I actually have quite a bit of material. If memory serves me correctly, I think I had initially envisioned make a pair of zoori for everyone in my family (for both sides). But seeing that my frame wasn't very comfortable and I haven't been able to find anything comparable, it now seemed like a far fetched idea to make something most of my family wouldn't want to use (heck, even we didn't want to use it!😖🤦♀️). So, I thought: what if I braided a frame "rope"??🤔🤔🤔 And then proceeded to do so. Once I made 2 frames, I coiled it up into the frame shape and stepped on it. It was actually quite soft and almost the right feel as the rope I was looking for.😱🥳 Then I mulled over how I wanted to actually weave the body. Typically, you just use the material to weave but I had found that it just felt too thin. So, since I was on a braiding kick, I decided that I would also braid a small length to see how that would feel as part of the bottom. Once I had my sample length, I just placed both the frame and the sample length over each other and discovered that it was quite soft and squishy.😳👍 However, I was still mulling over if I really wanted a pair of zoori, especially now that I wasn't working anymore. Did I really need it??🤔🤔🤔 After some discussion with Hubby (and, having him step on the braids), I suggested that I make a braided rug for under our futons (we have a bunch of blankets under them right now for some additional cushioning) as I thought it would be a better use of the materials and we'd still have something useful out of it. He said that was a good idea and it'd allow me to learn something new.👍😊
So, I borrowed the only two (2) books I could find at the library (How to Make Braided Rugs by Sally Clarke Carty and The Braided Rug Book by Norma M. Sturges) and started my journey. Interestingly enough, it seemed very basic and there wasn't much to it (it is afterall, an old handicraft). I could even be fancy and try to do a pattern. Since I was still figuring out how to make one, I decided that the most challenging thing I'd like to tackle is just making sure the colours were matching enough and that I would be able to actually make the rug.
I took out all of my material, deconstructed our zooris (& washed the matetials), and proceeded to make colour & fabric type piles in the living room. I sorted everything out by colour & print (I kept all the same print together in the pile). I couldn't decide if I really wanted to mix it all up or if I should just do it the lazy way and just make it light to dark (or vice versa). Hubs came out to check out the explosion in the living room and suggested that I should make it easy for myself, keep all the same prints/fabrics together and go from light to dark. So that what I did and here's how it turned out:
All in all, it took me two (2) days to braid everything together so, it wasn't so bad. It also helped that I wasn't trying to make something super big - just whatever it came out to be using what I had. I'm happy about how the colours turned out.🥰🥳 While actually braiding it wasn't too hard, there were times it felt like it was never ending (why?! were some of them cut into soooo many short pieces?!!!😱😖😳🤷♀️🤦♀️) as I needed to keep "connecting" some of the fabrics but overall, it wasn't a terrible ordeal. 😥
However, it took me four (4) days to actually sew it together. It was initially so hard to sew it together! 😱😭😖😵💫🤦♀️ It didn't help that I was trying to sew it on the floor and used the wrong type of needle to sew it up with for most of the black portion. I finally gave in and used a much larger needle when I finally got to the brown portion so, it got a little easier from there. Since I struggled with the black portion, I actually was so achy and sore from all that intense hand sewing (I was sewing it on the floor), it took me two (2!!😱😭😖😵💫🤦♀️) days to recuperate before I could even think about getting back to it again. And, even at that, it took me another week or so before buckling down to try again. On the second day, I moved to the table so while it was still slow going, it was much easier to sew; I finished the red & orange colours. On the third day, I finished the tan & blue-green colors but found my thumbs to be very sore as sewing through the knitted polyester material was really tough.😔😖😥 On the fourth day, I powered through the remaining cream, white & blue colours. And, here it is, in its full sewn glory:
As a whole, it seems pretty "cushiony" and hopefully it'll work well under our futons.🤞🙏 If it doesn't pan out (like our zooris 😳🤷♀️🤦♀️), I'll just donate it since maybe someone out there could use a rug.
