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How to finish a rug?


Mineejv

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I’ve done a few punch rugs but I’m not sure how to finish the backs of them? Do you finish all rugs on the backs the same or different when you use different needle work? What do some of you do? On the punch needle rugs do you cut the loops or leave them looped?

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I just acquired a needle punch I haven't tried yet, I'm still petit-pointing rugs to stock Brimble's.  Two ways I've read to finish the rug backs is to iron fusible interfacing onto the back and to paint the back with dilute glue.  I'm considering the latter when I finally get around to it; or perhaps fabric glue.

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I’m not sure what you mean by cutting the loops? That sounds like it would release the stitch. 

I don’t finish the backs of mine because they’re just for me and I don’t want to add thickness. On my first rug I had instructions that said to apply a thin line of tacky glue around the outside of the perimeter stitches. Then cut the excess material away after the glue dries. I hope that makes sense. That’s how I’ve done it in the past. 

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On a cross stitch rug, I leave the third to last row unstitched until the end, and then stitch it with the edge turned over underneath so it holds the edge in place. I'm not sure if that would work with punch needle (and it's too late for these, anyway).

For these rugs I would do something with glue. You could turn the edge under and glue it to the back of the rug, or do what Karin suggested.

I have also finished a rug by applying iron-on interfacing to the back, and then once that's on, cutting close to the edge. The interfacing keeps it from unraveling. You can see what I mean here: http://www.emilymorganti.com/blog/?p=9669

I only did this once, and ended up with little nubs of the fabric visible. It seems like that could also happen if you glue the edge and cut?

 

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With the punch needle you can kind of fluff out the edge stitches to cover any fabric that might show. Since it's not a flat stitch. It's kind of scary when you go to cut the excess fabric away but as long as the glue is dry and you've gotten it really close to the stitches, it should work. 

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I have a blog post on finishing a French knot rug, which is similar.  For punchneedle, I leave the loops uncut, but I have seen where people shave the surface for a carpet pile look.

http://www.otterine.com/blog/blog1.php/bees-and-trees-completed

I have also used permanent marker around the fabric edge if any fabric shows, but that only works for dark borders.

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Holly: Punch needle works up so fast. I do it when I go on long drives (like to Maine). So it probably works up even faster sitting still !

 Karin: Thank you !

Fov: I went to your site and spent an hour there.  I have an old wooden bread box and I want a stove like yours......

Otterine: Spent another hour on your site,so I’m not finishing the rugs tonight. I think I would like to try the French Knot rugs.Your rugs are amazing and your other things WOW..........

 I have the Heatbond and the fray check so I’m going to try that.               Thank you A’ll

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I have only done cross stitch rugs

. I finish with a very thin backing, , I use Swiss batiste in a dark color. I fold over  a little bit  of  the sides of the spare canvas  and stitch the batiste to the very edge using tiny stitches and thin thread.For the ends  I cut the spare canvas about half an inch longer than the actual needlework and line up the  batiste to the needlework edge .I tiny stitch the backing to that with of course a tiny turn over. This leaves about half an inch of bare canvas past the sewed edge at each end.. I then pull out the cross threads and  make it into a fringe and cut that  to the size I want, Iron the fringe and it will take the curl out of it 

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I have done the same thing as Emily with cross stitching rugs, where I turn the edge under and then stitch the edge. One thing I do is use fray check to make sure the cloth does not unravel, but you could use any glue (esp. fabric glue). The only thing about this is that the edges are kind of bulky - probably due to my skills in this area. 

Recently, I took a piece of fabric that I liked and made a "flat" rug with it by ironing on the fusible interfacing on the back and fray check around the edges. It was very simple, and compared with stitching, incredibly quick.

Your rugs are beautiful!:clap:

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I finish my  petit-pointed rugs with a row of blanket stitching over the outer two threads in the same color as the border.  If I fringe the ends I carefully cut the sides between the thread covered by the blanket stitch and the next thread and continue between those two threads out the ends however long I want the fringe and once the rug is cut out I unravel the ends.

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