Ruffle Rug Tutorial

• On a medium to heavy weight canvas fabric, measure then mark the shape you want, with chalk or a pencil. This can be any shape you want, in any size. It can be rectangular, oval shaped, round, star heart shaped, you name it. This will be the base for your rug.

• Cut out your base.

• Optional* If you want your rug to have a bit of grip on the bottom, just take a glue gun, and put thin strips of glue on the bottom.

• Using a double fold bias tape, stitch it on all the way around the edges of the base.

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• Put your base aside.

• Cut out strips of your fabric. I prefer to cut 4-5” wide strips. It’s hard to gauge exactly how much you’ll need, so I tend to just cut as much as possible, because I would rather have too much than too little, unless you want to do little bits at a time, and cut as needed.

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*To speed up the process, fold your fabric a few times, then cut the strips.

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*The strips do not need to be perfectly straight.

• Gather up the strips of fabric. If you have a gathering foot for your machine, use that. If not, just hand gather as you sew.

• At the end of each strip, simply lay the next layer underneath, and continue to sew.

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*Do not do a wide gathering stitch, with intentions of pulling the threads to gather up the strips, it will take way too long, and the gathers don’t need to be perfect anyways.

• Roll up each colour of ruffle, so that it’s easier to lay out and glue down.

*For this rug, I had the client give me a doily that she had crocheted, to incorporate into the rug.
*If you want to add a design to the rug (for example; chevron print on a rectangle rug), then draw out the design you want. This is where you can really get creative!

• For round rugs, start in the center, and work your way out, by marking out a general guide. Add a short thin strip of glue and lay the ruffle out on top, then add another short strip of glue, and continue doing that until the entire base is covered.
   

*When you reach the end, just ease the end in a little tighter, and the trim the ruffle so that you have a nice round ending.
 

• For rectangle or square rugs, mark the lines in the direction you want, and start from one edge and continue to the other side.

• Once the ruffles are glued down, and the glue is dry, take the rug to the sewing machine, and starting from an outer edge, start stitching the ruffles down, following the gathering stitch.

• You can wash the rug to get the remaining glue off, or you can leave it, if it didn’t get too messy.

You’re all finished, enjoy your new, beautiful rug!

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