Grace Martin-Chacon, a 19-year-old student at York University in Toronto, started up Dizzyrugs, a custom rug business, in December 2020.

Dizzyrugs offers custom-designed tufted rugs, tufted mirrors and even tufted tote bags that range from $20 to $200 in price.

Grace Martin-Chacon in Toronto. Photo by Kiara Ardian.

Before December, Martin-Chacon had no experience making rugs whatsoever, and the extent of her sewing skills came from her grandmother who had taught her to sew when she was a little girl.

Martin-Chacon was inspired after seeing TikTok videos and YouTube tutorials on making rugs and decided to make one for her boyfriend for Christmas. 

"I saw other people creating rugs, and I thought I could actually do this. It was all tutorials online, and once I started doing it, I didn't realize that I could actually be good at it," Martin-Chacon told blogTO.

Her first hand-tufted rug was of the Toronto Raptors sign, which took her about 32 hours to make.

Despite the tedious nature of rug making, she fell in love with the craft. 

A custom Charmander rug by Dizzyrugs. Photo by Grace Martin-Chacon.

Instagram encouraged her to start the business

Martin-Chacon had more free time during the second COVID-19 lockdown, so she decided to make her newfound hobby into a business.

"I worked at National Thrift, but with the lockdown, I'm out of work, so this is a way for me to make some extra money," she said.

After posting a picture of one of her rugs on Instagram, Martin-Chacon got the encouragement she needed to start up her business.

"I was like 'wow, I could really turn this into a business, people seem to be really interested'... people were like 'you should make more' and telling me that they wanted commissions."

A custom swirl rug by Dizzyrugs. Photo by Grace Martin-Chacon.

One tool saved her hours of labour

Making rugs is no easy feat, though. It takes a lot of time, patience and supplies.

"You need a lot of yarn and a monk's cloth which is a cloth that has a lot of tiny holes that you put a punch a needle through or a tufting gun," she said.

At the start, she was making each order by hand.

"I started my business doing only punch needle, so I was doing all of my rugs by hand punching every single strand of yarn into the fabric."

After growing her business, Martin-Chacon purchased a tufting gun that saved her about 24 hours of labour on each rug order. 

For her designs, Martin-Chacon traces patterns with a projector and does some free handwork designs.

"I'm so thankful that I could purchase one of the guns, and now it only takes me about 8 hours to finish a rug," she said.

A custom Nike shoe design by Dizzyrugs. Photo by Grace Martin-Chacon.

Martin-Chacon is a full-time university student, but she manages to balance her orders, classes and school work.

In the future, she would like to make her part-time business her full-time gig.

"I would love it to be my full-time business but it's obviously about financial security and once I feel comfortable enough to quit my job ,but I will definitely still be going to school and trying to get my degree," she said.