Indoor roofing or it's all in the genes

Last night Mum was telling me about how her mother used to make cord working trousers for the men in the family. She had the first pair made by a tailor and then copied the pattern to make the rest. When the trousers began to wear out after all the work in the fields she'd cut them up into tile-shaped pieces and sew them together. Mum's brother used to say she was making the indoor roofing again as the pattern looked like the tiles on the roof of the house. She used her "indoor roofing" as a protection for the top and the back of the couch and sofa. Just another "waste not, want not" story, Mum calls it.