Proddy rug making class for kids (10+ years)

Learn how to upcycle old t-shirts and textiles and make a funky proddy rug in this exciting kids workshop in Sydney!

Made by prodding or poking strips of fabric through burlap or linen from the backside, proddy rugs are a fabulous way of upcycling unwanted clothes and textiles into floor rugs or wall hangings. In their early days, they were often made for more utilitarian use such as by the backdoor as their pile hides the dirt well.

Working on a small piece of hessian, kids and teens will create a design and be taught how to poke the rug through the back or through the front using a crochet hook. You can use any material for proddy, however, we will use t-shirt strips for this lesson because of their tensility and ability to grab the hessian.

Rag rugs made this way have many names: clippies, proddies, stobbies, pricked. In Northumberland, they are called proggy mats, and in Scotland, they are called clootie mats.

At the end of the class, kids and teens will take home their work in progress proddy rug, with all the tools and skills to complete this fun and relaxing project at home.