Fabric Rug: Tutorial

Yesterday I posted about my lovely fabric rug and today I'm going to tell you how I made it. Click here to read yesterdays post.

This project wasn't difficult, even with a puppy running and laying down on the fabric while working on it, I could have finished this in a day.

You will love creating your own rug and will it last? Depending on the fabric you pick and scotch guarding it , it should last a long time.

Here is what I used

to make my rug to about 6 by 9

 4 yards of Heavy upholstery fabric

These days you can get it in variety of colors, designs and textures. You want to make sure its medium to heavy use upholstery material, you'll be walking on it a lot and you want it to last.

For the under layer to make it more heaver I used painters drop cloth

I bought the canvas drop cloth at Home Depot, its heaver then the drop cloth I purchased at Lowes. I picked up a 6 by 9 for about $10, I also used the extra one I had to make the border.

Fabri-Tac glue

I bough this tacky spray to spray the layers together but it didn't hold up for the heavy material, it does say that on the back....I'm not much for reading directions on labels I guess. Buy a big bottle of Fabri-Tac it works and its my favorite fabric glue.

Upholstery thread

You need heavy thread to stitch through the layers of the fabric and canvas.

Heavy duty needles

I used jean and leather needles

A hand needle and thread

I made little knots in and around the rug for extra support. Like quilters knots.

Sewing machine

 good music or a favorite TV show

If I forget to mention anything or you have a question email me and I'll be happy to answer just click on my contact page up top.

Okay lets get started

First, figure out your measurements for the size you want and do you cutting, I waited to cut of the extra fabric after I applied it to the drop cloth.

Lay our your drop cloth, you might want to iron it to get the wrinkles out. I didn't, it wasn't to wrinkled and I'm not a fan of ironing.

I smoothed it out and since I'm doing it on carpet I used pins to attach it to the ground so it wouldn't move while laying the fabric on top.

Then I lay out the fabric and smoothed it out and made sure it was were I wanted it. 

I First used the Aleene's crystal clear Tacky Spray. I started at the end and flipped over the fabric, sprayed waited a minute to get it sticky and smoothed down the fabric, you have to pull it tight and sometimes it bunches but it doesn't dry fast so you can fix it easily. I moved the pins as I went along.

Then I sat on the finished end and spray a little and smoothed the fabric on, I rolled the fabric towards me so I could easily roll it out over the sprayed area. Once finish check to make sure there's no wrinkles. Then I used the pins through the fabrics to keep it from moving and cut the excess fabric off leaving a inch and a half to fold over. 

The tacky spray helps keep it together but it didn't stay glued together with my heavy fabrics. You have to use fabric glue as well and I used Fabri-Tac to glue the edges over. I just started at one side at a time and flipped the fabric over and applied glue along the edge and folded the fabric over to the back side of the canvas. Once I completed that around the rug I took my extra canvas drop cloth and cut wide strips to use for the binding on the border. You could skip the border. Just having the fabric glued under the drop cloth is nice as well.

Zoey wanted to help. 

My strips for the long sides weren't long enough so I had to sew the pieces together. You could also sew the edges if you want I didnt and used the glue to fold the edge over on the strip.

Then I applied glue on the top of the strip and placed the edge of the fabric and drop cloth over the strip, covering half of the strip and then applied glue on the top of the fabric and folded over the strip and folded the edge on the strip and placed it on the glue. This gives it a smooth finish. I used pins to keep together while drying.

The corners for me were hard because I cut the excess fabric to short and couldn't do a nicer corner so I ended up with this. You can do it any way you want.

 Once you complete gluing all the strips to your sides and make sure you pin to get ready to sew.

Once the glue drys I started sewing the edges with my machine.

I sewed along the edge

made squares for my corners

and after sewing and cutting of excess threads look at your completed rug! 

I also mention I used a needle and the upholstery thread to make small knots in the middle and around the rug for extra support, Its not necessary. But just want to make sure the layers stay put.

I hope my pictures can explain how I did it, dont forget to email me if you have questions.

If you make a fabric rug please link back to me and send me a email so I can check it out! I have a button on the right side of my page. Thanks.

NOTE: I forgot mention this, with my fabric I had 4 yards, I cut it in half and then sewed it together lengthwise to make it fit the canvas! Sorry I didn't think about it sooner!

remember to check out my first post on the rug here 

 
 

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