I Tried Rug Tufting For The First Time
Summary
TLDRIn this engaging video, the host embarks on a new crafting adventure: rug tufting. Despite initial apprehensions, the journey is filled with laughter and learning as they navigate the intricacies of using a tufting gun to create a custom rug. With the guidance of Erni, a master tufter, they experiment with various techniques to tuft a night sky design replete with a moon, stars, clouds, and a bat. The process, though challenging and laborious, is also deeply satisfying, transforming a simple canvas into a unique, cozy rug. The video offers a behind-the-scenes look at the crafting process, complete with its trials and triumphs, ultimately resulting in a finished product that reflects both effort and creativity.
Takeaways
- 🎨 The video features a first-time attempt at rug tufting, a craft where rugs are created by swiftly running a tufting gun loaded with yarn along a canvas.
- 📚 The host expresses a deep love for satisfying craft videos and has tried various crafts with mixed success, but always with a sense of satisfaction.
- 🚂 After a long train journey, the host visits a custom rug tufting studio in Chicago, which has all the necessary equipment for rug tufting.
- 🛠️ The tufting gun operates with two pistons: one with a threaded needle to pierce fabric and leave a yarn loop, and another with scissors to cut the loop, creating a shaggy effect.
- 🤝 Erni, the studio owner, provides a tutorial on how to use the tufting gun, emphasizing the importance of pushing the gun into the canvas and maintaining an upright elbow position.
- 🌟 The host learns that changing direction with the tufting gun requires rotating the head of the tufter, and that tufting upside down is not recommended.
- 🔍 The host struggles with creating symmetrical shapes during the initial practice, but finds that the front side of the rug looks better despite the messy backside.
- 🎨 The design process involves choosing a simple yet on-brand image, a night sky blob with a moon, stars, clouds, and a bat, which is projected onto the canvas for tracing.
- 🧶 A variety of yarn colors are selected to represent the different elements of the design, including a deep blue for the night sky, yellow for stars, and various colors for the bat and clouds.
- 🕒 The host acknowledges the time-consuming nature of rug tufting, noting that it took about seven hours to complete the rug, despite the short duration of online tufting videos.
- 🏆 Despite initial challenges and a steep learning curve, the host is proud of the final product and expresses a desire to improve and try rug tufting again.
Q & A
What is the first craft that Safiya is trying in the video?
-Safiya is trying rug tufting for the first time in the video.
What are some of the satisfying craft videos Safiya enjoys watching?
-Safiya enjoys watching craft videos such as making soap from scratch, acrylic pour art, molten metal casting, hyperrealistic candle making, and visual ASMR satisfying craft videos.
How does Safiya describe the rug tufting process in the video?
-Safiya describes rug tufting as a process where people seemingly materialize a rug out of thin air by running a tufting gun loaded with yarn swiftly along a piece of canvas.
What is the name of the custom rug tufting studio in Chicago that Safiya visits?
-Safiya visits Freestyle Ceramics & Tufting in Bridgeport, on the South Side of Chicago.
What are the two main parts of a tufting gun?
-The two main parts of a tufting gun are a piston with a threaded needle at the end, which pierces through the fabric and leaves a loop of yarn, and another piston with a pair of scissors on the end, which cuts the loop of yarn open to create a shaggy effect.
What is the first step Safiya takes in the rug tufting process?
-The first step Safiya takes is getting her hands on an actual tufting gun and learning how to use it with a quick tutorial from Erni.
What is the main challenge Safiya faces while tufting the rug?
-Safiya's main challenge is her lack of experience with weaving, crocheting, needlepointing, or using firearms, which makes it difficult for her to control the tufting gun and create symmetrical and even shapes.
What is the name of the graphic designer who created the rug design for Safiya?
-The graphic designer who created the rug design is named Dayana.
What is the final step in the rug tufting process described in the video?
-The final step in the rug tufting process is shaving the rug to achieve a uniform and neat appearance.
How does Safiya feel about the final result of the rug?
-Safiya is pretty happy with the final product, especially considering the initial challenges she faced, and she feels she could do even better the next time.
What is the total time spent on making the rug in the video?
-The total time spent on making the rug in the video is about seven hours.
Outlines
😀 Introduction to Rug Tufting
The video begins with the host expressing excitement about trying rug tufting for the first time. She shares her love for craft videos and her experiences with various crafts, highlighting the satisfaction she gets from them. She then introduces the concept of rug tufting, describing the process of creating a rug from canvas using a tufting gun and yarn. The host also talks about the potential for customization in rug designs, from abstract art to humorous phrases. She shares her visit to a custom rug tufting studio in Chicago, where she plans to try making a custom rug despite being a few years late to the trend.
🛠️ Learning the Basics of Rug Tufting
The host meets Erni, the studio owner, and begins learning the basics of rug tufting. Erni explains the mechanics of the tufting gun, which uses a needle and scissors mechanism to insert yarn into the canvas. The host practices with the tufting gun, learning to push firmly, maintain the gun's perpendicularity to the canvas, and rotate the gun head to change direction. Despite initial struggles, the host starts to get the hang of it, with guidance from Erni and her friend Tyler. They discuss the forgiving nature of the craft, noting that while the backside of the rug may show mistakes, the front appears clean and neat.
🎨 Choosing the Rug Design and Yarn
The host decides on a night sky design with a moon, stars, clouds, and a bat for her rug. The studio's graphic designer, Dayana, creates the design, which is then projected onto the canvas for the host to trace. The host expresses excitement over choosing yarn colors, selecting a palette that includes deep blue for the sky, yellow for stars, lilac for the bat, periwinkle for the clouds, and white and pink for the moon and its shadow. The process of selecting yarn is described as enjoyable, and the host appreciates the vast array of colors available.
🌟 Tufting the Rug Design
The host starts tufting the rug, beginning with the moon and then moving on to the other elements. She experiences some difficulty, particularly with the stars and the bat, but with encouragement from Erni and Tyler, she continues. The process is described as challenging but also rewarding. The host and her helpers find humor in the process, and there is a sense of camaraderie as they work together. The host also discusses the physical strain of the activity, noting the fatigue in her hands and arms after several hours of tufting.
🔍 Outlining and Completing the Rug
After completing the tufting of individual elements, the host outlines the entire rug and its elements using a background yarn color to define the shapes and ensure the yarn is densely packed. This step, while time-consuming, adds definition to the design. The host then fills in the background with vertical strokes, which is a more straightforward process compared to tufting shapes. The host and Erni tag team this part to speed up the process. The final steps include applying glue to seal the stitches, using a heat gun to dry the glue, attaching a rug backing, and shaving the rug to achieve an even length for the yarn.
🎉 Finishing the Rug and Reflecting on the Experience
The host and her team successfully finish the rug after about seven hours of work. The host expresses satisfaction with the final product, especially considering the initial challenges. She reflects on the learning process and expresses a desire to try rug tufting again, believing she could improve with another attempt. The host thanks Erni and the viewers for their support and ends the video on a high note, suggesting that the rug, despite being technically a floor covering, might be displayed as a tapestry to protect it from her pet, Cosmo.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Rug Tufting
💡Tufting Gun
💡Canvas
💡Yarn
💡Craft Video
💡Custom Rug
💡Visual ASMR
💡Satisfying Crafts
💡Design Elements
💡Rug Backing
💡Shaving the Rug
Highlights
The video introduces the craft of rug tufting, showcasing the process of creating a custom rug from scratch.
The host shares their fascination with satisfying craft videos and their desire to participate in the craft themselves.
A custom rug tufting studio in Chicago provides the necessary tools and guidance for the host to try rug tufting.
The tufting gun's mechanism is explained, revealing how it uses a threaded needle and scissors to create the tufted effect.
The host learns the importance of pushing the tufting gun into the canvas and maintaining a perpendicular angle for proper tufting.
The process of changing direction with the tufting gun is demonstrated, emphasizing the need to rotate the head of the tufter.
The video captures the host's initial struggle with creating symmetrical and well-formed tufts, despite following instructions.
The host's test shapes, including stars and circles, turn out asymmetrical, highlighting the learning curve of the craft.
The design for the custom rug is selected, featuring a night sky theme with a moon, stars, clouds, and a bat.
The host expresses excitement and nervousness about choosing yarn colors for the rug, comparing the selection process to a Vogue shoe closet.
The tufting process begins with the moon, which is the largest and simplest shape, and the host surprisingly creates a well-defined outline.
The host and Erni, the studio owner, work together to adjust the bat's design to make it more achievable for a beginner.
The host experiences a learning curve while tufting the bat's wings, resulting in a noticeable difference between the two sides.
Despite some mistakes, the host finds that minor errors can be fixed with a few extra stitches.
The host humorously refers to their tufting of the stars as potentially creating a 'merkin' due to the shape turning out differently than expected.
The final steps of the rug creation include gluing the back, sealing the glue with a heat gun, and attaching a rug backing.
The host, although initially hesitant, attempts to shave the rug with clippers, a delicate process that requires a steady hand.
The finished rug is revealed, with the host expressing pride in the final product despite the challenges faced during creation.
The host jokes about hanging the rug as a tapestry to protect it from their pet, Cosmo, and reflects on the experience as a whole.
Transcripts
(upbeat music)
- Hello friends, and welcome to another video.
This week, I'm gonna be trying rug tufting
for the first time.
And, yes, I am armed and dangerous.
(machine whirring) (Safiya chuckles)
Now, as some of you guys may know,
I love me a satisfying craft video.
From making soap from scratch, to acrylic pour art,
molten metal casting, hyperrealistic candle making,
and whatever this is,
not only could I watch this (beep) for hours,
but when I fall down
a visual ASMR, satisfying craft rabbit hole,
I viscerally want it.
I want to do it, feel it, be it,
become the swirled soap or the cube of jelly wax
or the molten aluminum
sliding into an aquarium full of Orbeez.
And I have tried my hand at a few of these crafts
with varying levels of success,
but certainly a fair amount of satisfaction.
It looks like an amateur Yogurtland experiment,
but it's not a fail.
And for a while now,
I've been seeing these videos about rug tufting,
where people will seemingly materialize a rug
out of thin air
by running a tufting gun loaded up with yarn
ever so swiftly along a piece of canvas.
And not only are these videos incredibly satisfying,
I love seeing the image being slowly built line by line
until it's fully complete,
I also think the custom rugs that people make
are pretty awesome.
Like, I've only ever had boring square
or rectangular rugs in my life.
But you can make pretty much anything,
from psychedelic abstract art, to giant tomatoes,
to scary monsters,
to a dripping declaration that simply says, "horny."
Me too, friend, me too.
And a few months ago,
after getting off our 52-hour train ride across the country,
we ended up in my hometown of Chicago,
where there just so happened
to be a custom rug tufting studio
where not only did they already have
everything you would need to do some rug tufting,
but they were willing to let me take a stab, literally.
So I figured even if we're a couple of years late
to the trend,
why not finally try my hand at making a custom rug myself?
Will I be able to make anything cute at all
and achieve those satisfying tufting visuals
or will this just end up being a big pile of bonerkill?
I guess we'll find out.
So after hopping off our 52-hour Amtrak train in Chicago,
we did hit up a few spots,
like this Ancient Roman-inspired bathhouse.
- [Tyler] Flo-tarium.
Flo-Rida.
- [Safiya] Yeah, I think that's what they mean.
It's the Florida man pool.
- [Tyler] Oh.
- [Safiya] And this crazy high-end
"The Menu" style restaurant.
Still don't know what this is.
- [Tyler] This has just been ominously left at our table.
- [Safiya] And after getting
our ice cream sundaes launched at us.
(Safiya laughs)
- [Tyler] Oh!
- How do I eat it? - I don't know.
- [Safiya] We were ready to head
to Freestyle Ceramics & Tufting in Bridgeport
on the South Side
where we met up with Erni, studio owner and master tufter,
who was going to be teaching me the ropes,
or, rather, the yarn.
Freestyle Ceramics & Tufting does have, as the name implies,
both a paint-your-own-pottery studio
and a rug tufting workshop.
Someone tufted a booty.
Wow, risque.
- Tush tufting? (Safiya laughs)
- And it turns out Erni actually added
the rug tufting portion of the studio
after watching videos of people tufting online.
So, kindred spirit.
And for someone
with absolutely no tufting experience like myself,
my first step, besides putting my hair up.
So it's not in the rug.
We don't make a rug out of my own hair.
- Yes.
- [Safiya] Was gonna be to get my hands
on an actual tufting gun.
- Gives you the safety, the technique, everything like that.
- Little tutorial.
Now, from what I've seen online,
these tufting guns basically just seem like magic.
- Tap, tap, tap, tap.
We're gonna do it really slow, okay?
For our first time like that.
- [Safiya] But after some investigation,
it seems the way these things work
is that they have two pistons.
One that has a threaded needle at the end of it,
which will pierce through the fabric you are tufting
and leave a loop of yarn behind,
and another piston, which has a pair of scissors on the end,
which will follow behind the threaded needle
and cut the loop of yarn open
to create that nice shaggy effect.
So it's not magic. It's just scissors.
And after giving me a quick demo,
Erni handed over the tufter so I could give it a go.
- Some people like to be really, really careful,
like, do it really slow.
That is okay.
And some people like, "Oh, I feel comfortable.
I can fly," you know?
Exactly. - Yeah, Rambo.
(Safiya mimics gun firing) - Rambo.
- [Saifya] And I can tell you one thing, Rambo, I am not.
(machine whirring) - Okay.
- [Safiya] Now, a couple of quick things
I learned right off the bat.
First off, you have to make sure to push the head of the gun
into the canvas,
otherwise the yarn won't go all the way through
and the tufts won't hold.
- [Erni] But when you tap, the gun kind of bounce back.
- So you have to push more. - So make sure
the entire time, you gotta push in.
Otherwise this did not really go in.
- [Safiya] And you also have to make sure
to keep your elbow upright
to keep the gun perpendicular to the canvas.
- Okay, your gun's not very straight like this.
- [Safiya] Oh, got it. There we go.
- [Erni] Exactly.
- [Safiya] So even if you are spraying yarn like Rambo,
you cannot assume
a, like, classic Rambo power stance like this.
Well, I don't know anything about Rambo actually.
- That's how it works. - I just know
that one BLACKPINK song.
- [Tyler] (mimics gun firing) Rambo.
- [Safiya] Yeah (laughs).
Besides that, one other thing to remember
is that you have to rotate the head of the tufter
in order to change direction.
- So you wanna turn to the right, push and turn.
You gotta turn to the right like this.
- [Safiya] You can't just randomly pull the gun to one side
without changing the direction of the head
or you'll just slash your canvas.
- Push to the left. - Push in.
- Mm-hmm, turn to the left. - Turn the gun, and go.
And contrary to dance floor rules,
you do not want to cut the rug.
Also, you never wanna tuft upside down.
So if you wanna tuft an object like a circle, for example,
you wanna start at the bottom,
tuft all the way up to the topmost point,
then stop, go back to the bottom,
and tuft the other side.
And all of this seemed pretty straightforward
and yet I was not doing so great, guys.
- [Erni] So push in.
Tap, tap, tap.
You're going a little too fast.
- Mm, I'm going too fast. - Yeah.
- [Safiya] Unlike with some of the other
satisfying crafts I've tried,
I didn't have any applicable skills in this arena.
Can you follow a line? I don't know.
I don't know. Okay.
Like, molten lipstick and molten chocolate
have similar properties.
Whipped soap and whipped frosting, not so different.
- Very good. - A little bit better.
A little bit better, okay. - All right.
All right. - That sounded good.
- [Safiya] But I have absolutely no experience
with weaving, crocheting, needlepointing, or firearms.
Wow, this is kind of hard.
So I was shooting blind.
And even though Tyler and Erni were trying to stay positive,
my test stars were looking very asymmetric.
- [Erni] Much better already. Look.
- Yeah, I mean- - You're making progress.
- [Tyler] That's a star.
That's a star.
- [Safiya] Potentially even disturbing at times.
What about this little arm here?
- [Tyler] We don't talk about that arm.
- [Erni] It's not you.
It's me and my drawing.
- Thank you for falling on your sword for me, yeah.
- My drawing's not good.
- [Safiya] And my test circle was truly just a lump.
A little lovely lady lump.
- [Tyler] That's a lady lump right there, yeah.
- [Erni] I mean, I think it's a little bit better
than the star.
What do you think?
- [Safiya] The only saving grace for me
was that even though it seemed very difficult
to get any of the test shapes to look good from the back,
the front wasn't so bad.
- Oh! - Perfectly fine, look.
- [Safiya] Yeah, it looks cute.
- [Erni] Yeah, see, it's very forgiving on this side.
Yes. - Oh, it's so soft.
- [Erni] Yes, exactly.
- I wouldn't say it looked good from up here.
All right, I feel maybe a little bit more confident.
But it was a bit harder to see how bad it truly was.
This looks like the scrawlings of a mad woman.
- [Tyler] Zodiac Saf.
(Safiya laughs)
- [Safiya] So with expectations now at an all-time low,
the tutorial round was over.
- [Tyler] Looks like she's trying to say something to us.
- It's like she's trying to tuft something.
I know it.
And it was time to try and make an actual rug.
Now, as we said before, with rug tufting,
you can pretty much tuft anything you want.
And though I was tempted to tuft an "also horny" rug,
Erni let us know that words,
and especially cursive words,
are some of the hardest things to do.
And we all saw what just went down at the test wall.
So we decided to keep our expectations on my ability low
and go for something that would be simple enough
for my skill level,
but still on brand.
I'm intimidated. - You're intimidated?
- Yeah, I'm a little intimidated.
I want to do this.
I'm just nervous about it.
So our graphic designer Dayana whipped up a very cute
what I would call night sky blob.
Yay. Okay, that's our image.
That Erni projected onto a piece of canvas
for me to trace out as a pattern to follow.
- [Tyler] You're relocating down there?
- (laughs) Don't judge my methods.
With some simple elements inside
like a moon and some clouds
and then a couple of items with a few spicy details
to make the design a little more intermediate,
specifically our bat
and the contours of our bat's little head.
And even though it is a pretty simple design,
I still think it's cute and I hope you do too.
Wow, look at that cloud
that Erni definitely didn't help me draw.
(all laugh)
And once our design was all traced out,
it was time to pick out our yarn we were gonna use.
The yarn. Hello, yarn.
Good morning, yarn.
Now, I'd been admiring this rainbow yarn wall in the back
pretty much the entire time.
- [Erni] Yeah, too much to choose from, right?
(Safiya and Erni laugh)
- Just silence, just looking.
As it seemed like Erni had basically every color of yarn
that you could imagine,
kind of like the Vogue shoe closet but for yarn.
- [Tyler] Let's go to Mood.
- [Safiya] Let's go to Mood.
And I thoroughly enjoyed this part.
- I think it's too bright. - Too bright.
- [Tyler] Yeah, it's too bright.
- [Safiya] Get outta here.
In fact, if Erni is looking for someone
to just tend the yarn and help people pick out yarn colors.
Ha ha ha. This is fun.
I would happily volunteer.
And after some careful consideration.
Oh, that's not bad.
It's a bit lighter,
but it has, like, some purple elements in it.
We ended up grabbing a deep blue for the night sky,
a warm yellow for the twinkling stars.
- [Tyler] This one looks more like a "Starry Night" yellow.
- A lilac color for the bat,
a periwinkle for the clouds,
and a white and pink for the moon and its shadow.
Ooh, that could be good.
- The contrast's actually bigger for this one.
- [Safiya] A pretty good color palette, in my opinion.
- I like it. - I think could be a cute rug.
- [Tyler] I think it's definitely gonna be a cute rug.
- [Safiya] But after stalling at the yarn wall,
it was time to try and tuft this thing.
And Erni explained that the best strategy here
would be to tuft to each individual element
of the design first,
and then do the background last
to make sure that the elements
were as clear and defined as possible
and didn't get crowded out,
starting with the moon
since it was the largest and simplest shape.
- [Erni] And then we can do the cloud, the star,
and then we save the bat.
- Save the bat for last. - Yeah, for last.
- [Safiya] But even though
it was supposed to be the easiest,
that didn't mean I still couldn't mess it up.
Ah! All right.
- [Erni] Okay, I'm going to turn this on for you
and then you turn the gun to that direction
and then tap, tap, tap.
- [Safiya] And with everyone holding their breath,
I went for my first stroke,
and somehow from the depths of my soul.
- [Tyler] Hell yeah, dude.
- [Safiya] Pulled out a decently even, nicely curved,
continuously tufted line for the outer rim of our moon.
- [Erni] Oh, very good.
Yay. Perfect.
- [Tyler] That's perfect?
- Should I repeat that? That is perfect.
(Erni and Safiya laugh)
- And we all breathed a collective sigh of relief.
No, I don't know if I'll ever be able
to recreate that moment.
- [Tyler] Why don't we call it quits?
- Yeah. (Erni laughs)
I might have just peaked. - So let me finish remaining.
- [Tyler] The rest of the video
is just Erni's face deepfaked onto yours.
- [Erni] I have to paint in the same nail polish
and then we do it.
- [Safiya] I think after the tutorial,
even I was thinking we may not end up
with a finished rug at all,
but here was a glimmer of hope
and dare I say I was building some momentum.
Although, it didn't hurt
that I had both Tyler and Erni
watching my every move like a hawk.
- [Tyler] Keep that pressure up.
Back hand perpendicular. Don't tilt.
- [Safiya] So I don't know if I can take all the credit.
I like how you're like my coach.
- [Tyler] Well, I'm, like, looking right at your hands.
- [Safiya] And after three more lines
to finish the outline of the moon.
Bada-bing.
It's my little pet. It's soft already.
It was time to fill in the moon
by basically tufting long vertical strokes
in the inside of it.
- [Tyler] Keep that parallel.
- Yeah, you can't go to the other side.
I need you over here. - Okay.
(Safiya and Tyler laugh)
- [Safiya] And I feel like we were kind of getting
into a rhythm, the tufting gun and I.
I'll try and go a little tighter maybe.
Oh, turn on.
I literally forget every time.
I'm just like ready to go.
- [Tyler] But that's good safety protocol.
- [Safiya] We started off as foes
and now we were more like friend adjacent.
You know what, Ty, what the tufting gun would be good for?
- [Tyler] What?
- Remember that, like, electronics symphony,
like "Toxic" by Britney Spears
played on electric toothbrushes?
- [Tyler] Oh, it'd be great for that.
- [Safiya] It would be so good at that, right?
- [Tyler] It does have a little bit of a melody to it.
- [Safiya] It does. (laughs)
But before we could send the tufting gun
to the Device Orchestra,
(device orchestra music)
we still had a lot more rug left to tuft.
Woo, all right. What do we think?
- Very nice. - Yeah?
- [Erni] Yes, you're done with the moon.
- Done. - Yeah!
- Done with the moon.
Oh, it looks pretty good.
- [Tyler] Yeah, right?
- [Safiya] It looks shaggy, fuzzy.
- Oh, it feels so nice. - Yeah, baby.
- [Tyler] Oh, Cosmo's gonna love this.
- Oh my God. Are you kidding?
Cosmo will just undo all of my work.
- [Tyler] That is true.
- One of Cosmo's signature moves
is to detuft rugs, actually.
(Erni laughs)
So next up, in order of increasing difficulty,
we had to add the purple shadow to our moon,
which was kind of intimidating
because I had to match the curve
of the moon that I had just made.
Oh, nope. Mm, yep.
And since it was kind of a skinny element,
rather than filling it in
with straight up and down vertical lines.
- [Erni] I would recommend to curve your gun
to fill in like this.
- Let's see if we can do that. - Yeah! (laughs)
- [Safiya] Let's see if we can do that.
So I attempted a few curvaceous banana hammocks
to fill in our shadow.
And even though I had kind of a rogue tufting moment here
where one of my tufts fell out,
I learned that some mistakes are easily fixed
by a little detour of stitches.
- Let me see this side. - This little maneuver.
- No, it's good. This side looks good.
- Little sneaky sneak.
So I'm gonna continue to claim I was doing well so far.
It kind of looks like a little, like, wig.
- [Tyler] It looks a little bit like a mohawk, yeah.
- [Safiya] Yeah, like a mohawk.
A moon-hawk.
- [Tyler] Yeah, or like a unicorn.
- [Safiya] And we also decided
to double down on our moon-hawk
by adding on a little moon goatee.
- Soul patch. - A soul patch, yeah.
And then we were ready to move on to our two clouds,
one of which was high enough on the canvas
so that I had to stand and tuft,
which it turns out I'm not very good at.
I'm really bad when I'm standing.
- [Tyler] You are bad when you're standing.
- [Safiya] It's just something about it.
Like, I can't stand and think.
- [Tyler] Can't stand and tuft.
You can't stand and think, actually.
- [Safiya] (laughs) I don't have enough blood in my brain.
I think it might be something about the angle
or the visibility.
I guess I'm just not that good at standing.
How do you feel about that? - All right.
Very good.
- [Safiya] Oh, I was holding my breath the whole time.
- Yeah. - Were you?
- [Tyler] Yeah, I was clenching my butt, yeah.
(Safiya laughs)
- But after filling in cloud number one
(Safiya laughs)
and successfully humping cloud number two.
Coming around the mountain.
All right, now I'm starting back in the valley,
returning to the hump.
- [Tyler] Return to hump.
- [Safiya] Everything was looking pretty good.
Boom. - Beautiful.
- Clouds.
And we were ready to move on to our three stars.
This is the exact kind of spot
where I could just ruin it completely.
- [Tyler] Don't say that.
- [Safiya] It is though.
Ah, some foreshadowing.
Now, because our stars were more like twinkles,
they were made up of four curves
that did have to be kind of identical.
Do I take it out? Turn it back?
Let's go, let's go.
- Let's go. - Let's go.
And I did have a bit of a hard time replicating the curves
from one side to the next,
so they ended up looking a bit wonky.
The head is a little thicker than the bottom.
- Don't worry about that. - Okay. (laughs)
And I found that filling in our stars
was also pretty difficult
since they were so small.
Is that okay? - That's okay.
- Yeah, I'm getting a little messy over here.
But after attempting to make our first star
as cute as possible
using almost like the same kind of technique
you would use to try and fix uneven eyeliner.
Should we add like a little more here or no?
Is that not possible? - To balance a little bit?
- Yeah. - If you wanted to.
Yeah, we can add a little bit more here.
- [Safiya] A little more over here
and then a little more over there.
Yeah, I think that looks a little bit better.
I moved on to the other two stars
to see if I could do any better.
(laughs) It's a little crazy back here.
How does it look? - It doesn't matter.
It looks good on the other side.
- (laughs) And though there may
have been incremental improvements,
it still wasn't great.
So party in the back, business in the front?
Business in the front, party in the back?
- [Erni] Yeah.
- Party in the front, awful in the back?
This could also have been like an endurance problem.
I actually think that the mullet principle,
like, heavily applies to rug tufting.
(Tyler laughs)
Because after a few hours of working on our rug,
I was certainly feeling the burn in my hands and arms.
So I regret to say
that the stars did leave something to be desired.
The second star looks good.
The third star looks like a merkin. (laughs)
But merkin or not,
it was time to move on to our hardest element: the bat.
Now, we'd been dreading the bat the entire time
because not only was it a complex shape,
but it was also symmetrical and small.
Here goes nothing.
Oh! - No, it's okay.
- [Safiya] And even though the bat shape
had lots of peaks and valleys,
Erni suggested that we tuft it
in just a few continuous strokes.
- [Tyler] Get that curve.
Here you go. Discard that stool.
You don't need a stool.
- [Safiya] Get outta here, stool.
Like with the bottom of the wing,
which was absolutely terrifying, but went okay.
- Very good. (Safiya sighs)
- What do we think?
- See? - That's not bad at all.
- [Safiya] Unfortunately, I learned as I went,
so my second wing was better,
resulting in the two wings
being kind of different looking.
- All right! - Ooh, that's a wing.
- Yeah, you think? - That's Morbin Time.
- [Safiya] And then for the top of the wings,
we went for like a swoop and a swoop,
which I then had to attempt and mirror
on the other side as well.
- Same thing. Finish this side.
Let's talk about the head later, but yeah.
- We'll talk about the head later.
- Yeah, let's finish that part.
- We'll worry about the head later.
- [Tyler] That's a whole five minutes away right now, okay?
- [Erni] Exactly.
- [Tyler] That might never even happen.
A comet might hit us.
So don't worry about it.
- [Safiya] But after finishing off the wings,
there was no way around it.
It was time to approach the head.
Now, originally our bat head was made up
of quite a few lines and two very tiny ears.
But given the size of the canvas
and the fact that my aim was still a work in progress,
Erni helped us slightly alter the design
to be more like three concave curves.
- [Erni] Should it be like this instead?
- Yeah. - Right?
- And thank God we altered it
because I could barely do this.
That was just a straight line.
I need more curve. - Yeah, get more action there.
- [Safiya] The small design meant
I was kind of like shooting blind into the shag
like a bat in a cave.
Like that? - All right.
Yes, I think that's better definition for sure.
- [Safiya] And I actually did make
a few tufting mistakes here.
What does that look like on the other side?
- Ooh. - A little funky?
Are we missing one stitch at the end?
- [Erni] It looks like it.
- [Safiya] And though you can kind of pull out a few tufts
and try a stroke again,
you can't really do that more than once in any given area.
- [Erni] One more. Okay.
Ugh.
- [Safiya] Or you will strip your canvas
kind of like how you can strip a screw.
- Can I go in? - Yes.
- All right. (Erni and Safiya laugh)
- [Safiya] So Erni may or may not have given me a pinch tuft
to finish off little batty's head.
- [Tyler] Look at that. Look at that.
- [Safiya] That definitely looks like a bat.
- [Tyler] Look at that. That looks like a bat.
- [Safiya] That looks like a bat.
And even though he looked a little fluffy from the front,
we were ready to fill him in.
What do you think, Ty? - Looking great.
- Shagadelic? - Shagadelic.
- (laughs) It could easily be un-shagadelic very quickly.
And with that, we finally had all our elements tufted.
- [Erni] I think yours is good.
- Yeah! - That's good.
- Yeah! - Wow.
- Yeah, it looks okay? - Yes.
- Are you surprised? - No, I'm not.
Why would I be surprised?
That's expected, right? - You sound
a little surprised.
And we were ready to implement our night sky.
- [Tyler] It's a nice bushy bat.
- (laughs) A bushy bat? - No, it is.
- [Safiya] So on the road to finishing our rug,
we then had to outline the rug itself.
So our actual night sky blob shape.
- [Tyler] It looks kinda like a giant fried egg.
- [Safiya] It is giving, it is giving egg, yeah.
And then we also had to outline all of our elements
in our background yarn color,
which is meant to help define the shape
of all of the different elements in your rug
and also make sure that the yarn inside those elements
is nice and densely packed.
Ready? Here goes nothing.
- [Tyler] All right, stay frosty here.
- [Safiya] That did mean I had to basically retuft
all of the same shapes of everything I had just tufted,
which wasn't easy, especially with our bat
and my sworn enemy, our bat's head and ears.
- Last part. - Here we go.
But even though it took me a while,
I do think it helped add some definition to our little guy.
Like that, question mark? - Let me see.
- [Safiya] Even if he had a wonky ear or two.
- [Tyler] Kind of like a devil ear.
Oh! That little trim worked.
That looks amazing.
That looks amazing. - I think it's good.
- [Tyler] Yeah, you gotta come around and look at it.
- I'm coming.
And I think we could call that outlined.
Oh, he's cute, isn't he?
I mean, are we really gonna do better than that?
- [Tyler] No.
(Safiya and Erni laugh)
- [Safiya] And with everything outlined,
the thing I actually think I did the worst on was the stars.
(Erni laughs)
- [Tyler] Probably.
- [Safiya] We were ready for our final tufts.
Now we fill it in.
Now we fill it in. - Okay.
- [Safiya] AKA filling in our background
with long vertical strokes.
- [Tyler] Look at that. Look at that line.
- All right, so a bunch more of those.
- [Erni] Yeah, a bunch more of those, exactly.
- [Safiya] Which is kind of tedious work,
but it's much easier than tufting actual shapes
and it does really give off
some satisfying time-lapse visuals.
- [Tyler] It's like in, like, Kid Pix
when you have, like, the fill in.
- [Safiya] You know what?
It sounds like Kid Pix right now.
- [Tyler] It does.
Oh, no. Oh, no.
- [Safiya] I actually found this part
to be kind of fun and chill.
- It's very fulfilling after you finish this part.
- [Safiya] But we had been tufting for a few hours already
and in order to make sure
Erni didn't have to keep her store open into the night
for us to finish our rug,
she and I tag teamed this part a bit
just because I was going pretty slow and deliberate
and Erni was obviously much faster.
She is the master tufter after all.
So we were soaring, nay, flying across the canvas.
And after doing this for quite a while.
Last little patch. Ready?
- Yeah. - Little baldy over here.
- [Tyler] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- We finally arrived at our last strokes.
And after a quick tap, tap, tap.
Sounding good? Is it sounding good?
- Well, it passed my check.
- Oh! - All right!
Amazingly, we were done tufting.
- [Tyler] Wow, it really does look like the graphic.
- Do you think I did Dayana proud?
- [Tyler] I think so.
- I'm sorry about the stars, Dayana.
And we only had a few things left to do
before we could take our rug home with us.
First we rolled a bunch of glue on the backside of our rug
to seal the stitches in
and make sure our tufts didn't fall out.
My arms are tired, I'm gonna have to be honest.
This gluing is a lot easier than using the gun,
but, like, I'm like (groans), like, tired.
Next, Erni swooped in with a heat gun
to quickly seal the glue and make sure it was dry.
After which, we cut our night sky blob out of the canvas
to free it from its earthly tether.
Smells like hot glue back here.
Smells good. (Erni laughs)
Voila, a rug and a hole.
Next up, Erni and her associate Susan
attached an actual rug backing to our rug
with traction pads and everything.
Like bath mat style, right?
Like a little non-slip action.
And then our final step was to shave this bad boy.
- [Tyler] It looks amazing.
- [Safiya] It's fuzzy, just like it's mama.
Now, I've seen people shave their creations
in a lot of the rug tufting videos I've watched.
I actually find it to be a pretty satisfying step
in the process.
Oh. - Ooh.
- [Safiya] Oh.
But after having come so far,
I was a little nervous that my tired hands could slip
and somehow shave my rug bald.
All right, high stakes.
- [Tyler] How's your hand feeling, Saf?
- Tired. - Yeah?
- [Safiya] But after a few swipes at shaving the test wall.
- [Tyler] Sponsored by Manscaped.
- [Safiya] By Manscaped?
That would actually be a really smooth integration.
It was time for me to dig in.
All right, I'm gonna just try one
over here in the dark just to see.
Now, this was pretty tricky
because you actually don't want to dig in
with the clippers
since that could cause a crater in the rug,
but if you don't go deep enough,
you actually won't end up shaving anything at all.
Is that better? - Yep, yep, better.
Yes, now you're not pulling out yarn.
You're actually trimming it.
- So you have to be very level
and at the exact right height.
(clippers whirring) (Safiya squealing)
And it's not that I was awful at this,
but I just really didn't wanna mess up
all of our hard work at the last second.
Should I hand it off? - Yeah.
- Okay. - Yes.
- I'm, like, terrified.
In my defense, Erni doesn't usually let
her beginner students shave their rugs themselves,
but having seen it so many times,
I was happy to have at least tried it.
And after another pass from Susan, she was all shaved.
- Done. - Wow, beautiful.
Yeah, I'm glad that I didn't do it.
And with all of that, we had a finished rug, baby.
- [Erni] Hooray, we're done.
Yes, finally.
Woohoo!
- Finally! - Get out of my studio.
- Bye. (Safiya and Tyler laugh)
- [Safiya] Now, I'm not gonna lie, that took us a while.
Partially because everything is always a bit slower
when you're filming it
and I was tufting very deliberately,
but it's kind of crazy
to think about how many TikToks about rug tufting
are, like, a minute long
and it took us hours to tuft a rug even of this size.
- [Erni] About seven hours, right?
- Seven hours of blood, sweat, and tears right here.
- [Tyler] How's your hand feeling?
- Mm, a little numb.
However, I am pretty happy with the final product,
especially considering how we started off the day.
- [Tyler] Yeah, no, it was in train wreck territory.
- [Safiya] Now that's what I call character development.
But now that I've learned a little bit
about some of the ins and outs of rug tufting,
I feel like I could do even better the next time around.
- [Tyler] You have the itch to come back.
- [Safiya] I have the itch to come back
- Next time, you will just fly through it.
- So in this satisfying craft rodeo,
even though I had a few stumbles,
I feel like we successfully rode the bucking bronco
that was the tufting gun.
Thank you for having us. This was so fun.
I'll shake your hand
and then I'm gonna put my hand in ice
for the rest of the night.
- All right. Thank you.
Thank you for coming. - This is the last action
of my right hand for the rest of the evening.
And as for this guy, even though he's technically a rug,
I feel like we put in too much work on him
to put him on the ground.
I think we should hang him up somewhere
like a baby blobbish tapestry
at the very least to save him from Cosmo's jaws.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
If you liked that video,
make sure to smash that Like button,
and if you wanna see more videos like this,
make sure to smash that subscribe button.
Here are our short-form/social media handles
and here's our merch website.
And with that, I will see you guys a-next time.
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)
