If I were to do this over, I wouldn’t divide the piece up in sections--30 woven feet will easily fit on the loom. I was initially concerned about being able to wash it, but I opted for not washing it anyway because I wanted it to look “crisp” when we put it on the stairs. I’m sure it’ll start looking like a rag rug soon enough…

11/19/2017 And now it’s officially attached to the stairs, so officially done!

05/9/2017 Brought the three sections to a local sewing shop and--$10 later--two seams were sewn in to join the hems! (She used the machine she uses for repairing blue jeans and joined the pieces right where the rag started). Now all I need to do is tack the hem fabric down on the back side.

04/11/2017 Last section off the loom!

Total cumulative length 30’ 7”

04/22/2016 Spent over two hours sewing strips together last night and probably got through about half of what I cut on Sunday.

04/17/2016 Took 7’ section off loom in the morning; sewed remaining cut strips and put on shuttle. Spent a few hours in the afternoon cutting up jeans, and used up the shuttle I had wound earlier in the day. Getting just over a foot of fabric per shuttle.

04/08/2016 Sewed two shuttles worth of denim strips and used 2/3rds of one of them. Currently at about 3’ long.

04/05/2016 reattached warp to apron rod and began weaving actual project

04/02/2016 Took sample piece off the loom.

Dimensions after washing: 26” wide by 19.75” long

On the loom: 28” wide by 25” long
Off the loom: 27” wide by 21” long

Two stick method on Peggy Oster Kamp’s blog worked great (though I actually used three sticks).

3/26/2016 Sewed enough denim strips to fill two rag shuttles, planning on completing sample and taking off the loom.

03/25/2016 Tried gluing the strips together with just a small spot of fabric glue to see if that would reduce the size of the seam “bumps”, but that actually made them worse (even with just a dot of glue, the fabric was too stiff to beat). The rug is too wide (and the sett too tight) to make laying the weft unjoined by hand practical. Back to seaming with the sewing machine (which I’m getting better at…)!

03/23/2016 FINALLY started my sample piece!! I’m not terribly happy with the density of the weave, and I also don’t really like the bump created by the sewn seam that joins the ends of the denim strip (at an angle). I think I might try just laying the rag in without seaming (per advice I received in a fb group), and I’m going to change from a 1,3 vs 2,4 treadling to a 1,2 vs 3,4 (which is what my notes from last year said to do anyway, but I forgot!)….

10/2015 Advice from KD: “This is what works for me. 1/2 inch stripes sewn together at an angle - same as you would sew if you were making a quilt binding. I thread the loom straight draw - 1,2,3,4. I weave with 8/4 cotton carp warp as my warp and as my weft for the hem. The beginning hem area is plain weave 1,3 vs 2,4. I weave that for about 2 inches. Then I weave the jeans using 1,2 vs 3,4. Beat firm change the shed beat again. Weave longer than your finished goal. I have about 10 to 20 percent shrinkage or loss in length once the rug is off the loom. Once done with weaving I remove from loom and let the rug “rest” for a day then measure. I then see my gems and machine wash & dry all my rugs.
This is just what I do and it works for me
If I were going to do a project like yours I would do a test rug. To find out what works for you. Warp your loom with extra and do a test. Strips sewn vs not sewn. Plain weave vs a different treadling. Etc. thicker strips ? Maybe you won’t like the thin 1/2” strips. Try it out test lots of things. Plus you need to test how the rug will fold over the stairs. Lots of variables. One thing I know for sure is that there are as many opinions as there weave structures. You have to just try it and find out what will work for you.“

8/9/15 I’ve been collecting blue jeans for over two years now, just finally started cutting today.

Plan based on notes from Karen Driscoll’s posts in the Rug Weavers facebook group: “Threaded straight draw (1,2,3,4) 12 EPI - plain weave for the hem using one strand of the carpet warp. Woven with bluejeans cut to 1/2 and sewn together. Bluejean area woven with 12 vs 34. Machine sew the hem.”