How to Make Rag Balls

Making rag balls was once a practical way of scavenging every last bit of usable cloth, usually to be sewn into a rag rug later. You can still make rag balls for eventual use in crafts, or as a homey Southern-style decoration.

1. Collect old sheets, old clothing or fabric yardage. You'll need 1 to 2 yards of fabric per rag ball.
2. Snip into the edge of your fabric with sharp scissors.
   • Always snip in line with the grain of your fabric. In other words, look carefully at the fabric, determine which way the fibers run, and cut in the same direction. This ensures that your fabric will tear easily and evenly.
3. Grasp the fabric on either side of the snip and pull it apart. Cotton, in particular, will tear easily along the grain.
4. Tear the fabric to about 1 inch (2.5 cm) away from the opposite edge.
   • You can tear all the way through the edge of the fabric, but you'll end up with a pile of strips that you have to knot or sew together. If you stop 1 inch away from the edge, you can create 1 long strip of fabric from any square or rectangular piece.
5. Turn the fabric around and make another snip to start a new tear, 1/2 to 1 1/2 inches (1.25 to 3.75 cm) away from the previous tear.
   • The heavier your fabric is, the wider the strips you should tear.
6. Grasp both sides of the snip you just made and tear again. Use even, controlled force to make a smooth tear, and stop 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the far side of the fabric (this is the edge you first started tearing from).
7. Make another snip in the far side of the fabric, the same width away from the last tear as the one before that.
8. Continue ripping back and forth across the fabric, stopping about 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the edge with each tear you make. The result is 1 long, continuous zig-zag piece of fabric.
   • Once you've cut the entire sheet, rag or piece of fabric into strips you're ready to roll it into a ball, just like you'd roll a ball of yarn.
9. Wrap 1 end of the long rag strip you created around your fingers 8 to 10 times.
10. Slide the loops you just wrapped off your fingers. Pinch them together and continue wrapping the long rag strip around the loops, this time perpendicular to the original wraps.
11. Alter the directions of your wraps as the ball begins to take shape. As long as you do an equal number of horizontal, vertical and diagonal wraps, you should end up with a reasonably round rag ball.
12. Tuck the end of the yarn wrap under 1 of the previous loops to secure it.
13. Store your rag balls in a basket for a Southern-style decoration, until you're ready to use them.

• You can use your rag strips to sew a rag rug, or for knitting and crocheting.
• If you're making rag balls for decorative purposes only and have no intention of using them later for crafts, you can wrap the rags around a tennis ball or foam ball to conserve fabric. Tuck the loose end underneath 1 of the previous wraps and pull tight, or tuck the loose end inside the previous wraps and secure with a flat thumbtack.
• If you're cutting large T-shirts into rags for rag balls, start at the bottom of the T-shirt and cut in 1 long spiral up the body of the shirt. To cut strips from jeans, cut the hems off the jeans and cut zig-zags up and down the legs, or cut in spirals up each leg.

• Old sheets, clothes or cloth yardage
• Sharp scissors