How To Make a Green Welcome Mat

When clothes and towels and sheets become too torn or worn out to wear or give away, you don't need to just toss them into the trash. Why not turn them into a one of a kind welcome mat for your front porch instead? If you add some non-slip shelf liner to the bottom, it will also keep your mat from sliding around when people wipe their feet.

You will need several items of discarded clothing or bedding, enough to fill a grocery bag, an upholstery needle and upholstery thread, a large piece of cardboard, straight pins and a roll of non-slip non-adhesive shelf-liner, made from recycled plastic, if possible. Each item should be cut into strips approximately 1 inch wide. If the fabric is particularly stretchy or weak, make the strips up to twice as wide. Once the strips are cut, you can either tie them together or sew the ends together. Once you have one long strip of fabric, you are going to turn it into a crocheted chain. You can do this with a large hook, or just by hand. On the final chain, pull the end through the loop to tie it off.

Pin one end of the chain to the center of the cardboard. Begin winding the chain around itself to form a circle or an oval, pinning it on each "side", until you reach the end of the chain. Thread your needle with about 2 yards of thread to begin, tying the end with a large knot. This project will require threading your needle several times, but to use more than 2 yards will likely result in a hopeless tangle of thread.

Beginning in the middle of the spiral, sew through the first two folds of the chain to bind them together and lock your thread in place. After that, use the needle to weave the thread over and under the rows of chain using the spaces between them. When you reach the outside, make a return pass to the center, this time reversing the order and going over where you went under, etc. Make another pass about 30 degrees to the right of the first and so on, until you have done the entire mat.

Cut the shelf liner to fit the back of the mat, in several pieces if necessary. Sew or glue it to the fabric spiral. Hand wash your rug in warm water and hang dry.