Alright, I want to get some rags, for certain things.
I have lots of Jeans which I don’t need.
How do I chop things up?
And what do you suggest I make first?
Thank you in advance,
Markutsk
"a"ctivate an object with a cutting quality of 1 or more, then select the cut up item option, then select the item you want to cut up.
How do I select the cutup option? I have a gardening shovel, and I activete it; what now?
Wait, gardening shovels have a cutting quality?
Huh.
Do it with scissors or a knife.
I can do it that way too. I activate them, what now?
Press 1 when the menu comes up, then press the letter of the thing you want to cut up.
When you activate the cutting tool, it will bring up a menu with options to cut something up or engrave something. Select the first option to cut something up. Then you select the cloth item in your inventory that you want to turn to rags.
Alright, thanks.
Saved my life there 
you can either use the dissasemble command (mapped to ‘)’ by default I think), or 'a’pply a knife, scissors, or other cutting implement to the clothes to cut them up.
It has been quite a while, but last time I used disassemble on clothing it required me to expend thread to do and it only worked on a few items. Ever since I’ve simply cut things up.
Keep in mind that if the item is damaged and/or your tailoring skill is low you will get fewer rags or even fail altogether. As far as I can tell the size of the item is also a factor.