3 Ways To Make Crocheted Rugs Non Slip

Crocheted rugs are trendy nowadays. Especially lace mandala’s made with T-shirt yarn are very popular. If you would like to make one for your home, it’s very important to also think about the safety. Handmade rugs are very slippery, and they are not suitable for use without special anti-slippery materials applied. I’ve tried ABS Latex (by Schachenmayr) and wrote my review about it.

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1. There are different ways to prevent your handmade masterpiece from being slippery. The most easy is to buy non-slip area rug pads. They are most likely sold in every store with carpets. You can check their different types HERE*. The advantage of these pads is they can be cut any size, they are easy to apply and use. If you need to clean your rug just remove the pad and put it back again. 

Source: IKEA

Probably the only disadvantage of these pads is they are not good for lace rugs. As fabric is seen though the holes. I tried to use them for my Andromeda Mandala Rug. And it looked not nice at all.

2. Another solution is anti slip spray. I haven’t got a chance to try one. But I read a few reviews, and they seem to work well. But after washing it will be probably needed to reapply spray again, as it may be washed out and anti-slip effect will be gone. HERE* is an example of such a spray.

3. When I was finishing the pattern for White Tea Doily Rug, I asked my testers if they know any nice ways to prevent rug from being slippery. And one of the suggestions was to use silicone. You know, the one which is used for bathrooms, kitchens and so on. But there is the same material which was created especially for textiles. It’s called ABS Latex and I got a bottle of it in white shade from Scheepjes together with Bloom* yarn for my Oresund Bathmat free pattern.

So I decided to try it. I couldn’t find any instructions on the bottle (they should be in flyer which I didn’t have), so I thought I would improvise.

ABS Latex by Schachenmayr comes in bottles of 100ml and in several different shades. It’s aimed for making socks skid-free. But if it works for socks why it shouldn’t for rugs, right? For test purposes I used a sample of Oresund Sky Bathmat (which can also be a nice dishcloth, what do you think?). If you would like to try ABS Latex, I would recommend to first apply it to a small test crocheted piece.

Step 1. I’ve shaken the bottle and opened it. You should hold the bottle top down and press really hard to make a drop come out. I first tried it on my fingers. ABS Latex looks like PVA glue, but it has a very nice smell and doesn’t stick to fingers at all. If you can see in the pictures below, it can be easily “smashed” and removed. But it also means that after apply to crocheted fabric it should not be touched until it completely dries. Otherwise your dots or lines will be spoiled!

Step 2. I decided to draw small dots on the wrong side of my sample. It was tricky to make them look nice and the same size. But after making some 15 of them I got the feel.

 
Step 3. After applying ABS Latex I left my sample to dry completely. I tried it after 4 hours and it seemed dry enough. But it’s better to leave it overnight. Also if you feel your dots are too small, you can add several new layers. But again, be sure to let them dry. I guess a hair dryer can be used to get a quicker result.

After latex dried I put my sample to the floor and tried to slide on it. The anti-skid effect was absolutely there! And when I put my sample on the table I couldn’t slide it on the table’s surface with my hand.

I also tried to pull latex dots from my sample. It was not too easy, but possible. But I think in normal conditions you will not pull them by hands. And they should stay in place during normal use of the rug. I also believe that gentle hand wash should not damage them as well.

The only disappointment is latex is seen between the stitches on the right side of my rug. It happened because I didn’t apply it directly ON the stitches, but sometimes latex was applied in between. And probably grey color would work better in my situation.

But anyway. ABS Latex works! Unfortunately I couldn’t find any global online sellers of this product. But I noticed it is available in local e-shops, so please, try to search for one in your own country. And ABS Latex is also available from local Scheepjes stockiests.

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