Jersey Knit Rug (Part 2)

So, a while back, I posted part one of my jersey knit rug blog. If you want to look at the original blog post, here is the link: http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/latch-hook-rug-part-1.html

Well, I actually thought that it would take me a lot longer to finish up the rug than it did. I guess I have gone into nesting mode lately and have wanted to get a bunch of projects done now that we are less than 10 weeks from our baby boy coming into this world.

I finished this project a couple weeks ago and decided it was time to share the part 2 of my project for those of you who may have decided to make this rug yourself.

Jersey Knit Rug (Part 2)

The materials you should have left are:

*Your latch hook canvas filled in with all of the fabric that you are using.
*Rug binding (I am using iron-on binding for this, but there is also binding that you sew on. Depending on what type of binding you are using, you will either need a very thick needle and thread or you will need an iron and ironing board.)
*Scissors

Now let’s start finishing up this rug!

1. Cut the edges of the rug so that it is easier to deal with. I wound up originally cutting the edges of the rug so there was a whole square of latch hook canvas left around the rug, but then decided that it would be easier if I cut the fabric to be even smaller. Here is a picture of my rug when the latch hook canvas was finally cut to the size that I wanted to work with.

NOTE: I found it easy to decide what size I needed to cut the canvas down to by pulling out the rug binding and using it to measure.

2. Fold the extra latch hook canvas material to the back of the rug. I thought this part of the project would be very difficult since the material is so stiff, but found it to be very easy once I got going. I folded the fabric one small square off of the area that I had already placed fabric. I found this was best because it did not cause the jersey knit fabric to fold over to the back of the rug with the rug binding.

3. Take care of the corners of the latch hook canvas that you have folded back. You can either leave the corners overlapping as they will be when you fold the extra hatch hook canvas to the back of the rug or you can cut the corners to help keep the corners from being thicker than the rest of the edges. I decided to cut the corners so that there was only two pieces of fabric overlapping instead of the four pieces that originally were overlapping. 

4. Cut the rug binding so that it is the length that you need it to be. I had originally decided that when I am ironing the rug binding on, I will cut the corners at an angle so that there is not a large overlap of the binding. This is not what happened when I actually started working on it and there is an overlap of my binding, but it does not cause any bulges to the rug.  NOTE: I originally thought the rug binding had a sticky adhesive to the back and that I would be able to place the rug binding on before moving the rug to the ironing board. This is not the case, but the rug binding is very light and pretty easy to place on the rug when it is already on the ironing board (or the floor, which is where I ironed on the binding for my rug.)

5. Attach the rug binding to rug. I do not have instructions for this if you are using the sew-on binding, but I am sure they are easy to find if you use Google. I am also sure that the package of binding will have plenty of directions to help you out as well. As for the iron-on binding, you will use the iron set on the wool setting. Place the binding where you want it ironed and press down with the iron for about 7-10 seconds. You will need to check the tackiness of the binding after holding the iron there for this amount of time and you may need to hold the iron there a little longer. Here is a picture of the back of the rug when the binding has been attached.

Here is a picture of the rug now that it is all done. I am sure our son will love laying here for tummy time and we will get some great pictures of him on this rug when he finally graces us with his presence.