Penny Rugs History

A brief history of penny rugs dating back to the 19th century it is believed that penny rugs were a way of using up the remnants of cast off and used woolen clothing that wasn t large enough to cut into strips for hooking rugs.

Penny rugs history.

In the 1800s starting around the time of the civil war thrifty homemakers would use scraps of wool or felted wool from old clothing blankets and hats to create designs for mats or rugs using coins as templates they created circles and each piece was then stitched in blanket stitch fashion. My first encounter with penny rug making was over forty years ago. A penny rug is a decoration made of stitched together coin shaped fabric scraps. The history of the penny rug article 1sawhorses i hope that my own recount of their history may help those curious to know more about penny rugs.

Traditionally during civil war time around the 1800 s thrifty homemakers i would actually call them textile artists cut up wool coats or pants that were no longer serviceable and they made them into rugs or mats. The term penny rug came from the use of coins as templates for varying sizes of circles that were cut from the fulled or felted wool of hats and clothing. My account of them is memories from my learning experiences and stories by my grandmother. Penny rugs were strong enough to withstand being beaten with a rug beater to remove mud and dirt.

A history of penny and sewn rugs did the original makers of penny rugs collect wool from friends cast offs of family clothing perhaps from mail order samples from woolen mills or maybe scraps from seamstresses. The history of the penny rug article 1 read more.