Tutorial for reclaiming an area rug from your plain old carpet

OK, I think the long title is telling you all about today's post. Well, there is one thing you can't tell from the title. This is a No-SEW project. It is actually a very simple process. Many of you would not need a tutorial for this project. This is just kinda memorandum for myself. So I didn't mean to take those photos for sharing here in my blog. I apologize the bad lighting and the low quality of photos. I hope this post will inspire some readers who have a piece of carpet remnant or abandoned old rug.

I had this pretty good size of plain carpet remnant. It came with this house.  It was always lying around in the corner of our family room. I couldn't throw this away since the surface still looks fine except the raw edges were cut unevenly. I have been thinking how I can make it looks nice and usable again. Then one day I thought of framing those rough edges with pretty fabric. And it went pretty easy and quick. But the result was very satisfying. You can use this method to your old rugs as well. If you had a pattern on your rug, I suggest to go with solid fabric for the trim.

First, I trimmed my carpet remnant nicely. The fabric pieces you will need is...

*Two pieces of : 7"x Length of your rug           *Shown in the picture below.
**Two pieces of : 7"x (Width of your rug +2")     **This fabric is not shown in the picture below.

Fold and press all four pieces of fabric like in this picture below. Fold 1/2" on both edges and fold it in half.

Starting with the long side (the length) first.  Slide the carpet (rug) edge between a folded fabric piece. Glue the fabric edge onto the carpet surface using a hot glue gun. Work on the wrong side of the carpet as well. After finishing the both long sides, we are moving on to the short sides (the widths).

First, glue the fabric onto the right side of carpet. Leave 1" fabric as a margin on both ends.

Flip the carpet over, then fold the margin in and glue on the wrong side of carpet.

Fold the rest of fabric and cover the previous fold. Glue the fabric along the widths to finish all the framing.

The corner is neatly done.

That's all. Here you have a "NEW" beautiful area rug.

If you had a colored rug, that would be more fun to pick a fabric (or two) for framing. I used a medium weight cotton canvas. Light weight fabric like quilting cottons wouldn't be so easy to work with for this project. I suggest medium to heavy weight home decor fabric.

I enjoyed this project. I made some bath mats with this method. I folded old bath towels and trimmed with fun printed cottons. I hope I won't forget to show you those bath mats sometime. The finished area rug is now lying in the little sitting area in my studio. I love the clean look of this rug. I wish I had some more carpet remnants I could embellish! ;p

This might be the last post in 2012. I have a lot of fun plans and projects for 2013. You will see more tutorials and patterns. And also I would love to have some activities that you can involved in. I want to say thank you to all for supporting my blog and encouraging me not to stop creating through the year. I am so glad that I dared to start this blog three years ago.

I hope all of you will have a wonderful new year. Thank you so much!

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This is a notice about my Etsy shop. The shop will be closed in January 2013. The exact date for reopening isn't decided yet. I will announce it in this blog, twitter, and facebook. Some products will show again and some won't. The shop will be closed on Dec.31.

Merry Christmas.

December is chaotic. And also filled with lots of fun stuff. I tried to find time to face to my PC for while many times but I didn't make it so far. It is another busy day today. Christmas Eve. I just want to say everyone Merry Christmas and thank you for supporting me and my creativity. It is a quick post but is with a lot of pictures of our Christmas.

Home made fresh Christmas wreath of 2012.

Our Christmas tree is in the family room this year.

Vintage wooden ornaments sent to Japan.

Christmas thank you present for the bus driver and the teacher.

School Christmas concert.

Dressed up in her Christmas dress.

We went to Chicago last weekend to celebrate our anniversary and Holidays.

Lights on Michigan Avenue.

Christmas breakfast at Macy's (previous Marshall Field) Walnut room.

We had so much fun at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Thank you so much for your support for this year. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New year. Hope to see you soon after Christmas!

November look back

I can't believe its already December?! And its already the third? Where did my November go? I know, it is the busiest time of the year. I have been saying the same phrase every year.

This weekend, Nina will be in a big ballet production in the town. If you are a long-term reader of my blog, you must remember that she participated "the Nutcracker" ballet as a snowflake. This is her third Nutcracker stage and she is going to dance an Angel. We have already been busy for rehearsals and the first performances in New Buffalo in Michigan last Saturday. Also I've been making products for my shop and consignment. And just like most of you are, I am busy preparing Holiday gifts and decorations. Oh well, I think I just wanna look back now what my November was like with pictures I took. And take a deep breath to take myself back to push through a couple more weeks.

Beautiful frosty mornings.

Before the frost kills my pretty flowers in pots, I took them in the living room. They are still blooming beautifully and more flowers are coming.

 November 9th was our 10th anniversary. We were invited to the nice restaurant by my parents in law, and we had a big good dinner. I had a Kobe beef steak. It was so delicious. And a piece of rich chocolate cake was a gift from the restaurant. We had a lovely night.

I finished knitting a pair of socks. These were an anniversary gift to Tim. 

Oooops! A little to long for his feet. But I love the pattern which is made automatically by the yarn. And this wool is very soft to the skin. I want make a pair for myself with the same yarn in different colors. It seems not to be happening though. Let's hope the Tim's pair will shrink a bit after a wash.

 One beautiful day, we went nature walking.

And went to the Snite Museum of Art in Notre Dame University.

 We say in Japan "Fall for Art". Which means Fall is the best time of the year to appreciate Arts.

I love Art museums. That is one big thing I really miss in Tokyo. There are so many good museums in the big city and I was able to see the best arts from around the world.

 

Observation day at ballet school.

Making flower brooches for consignment.

I enjoyed making a Ginger bread house with Nina.

Those walls and roofs of the house smell so yummy. Daddy said "I wanna eat them right now!"

I did a Furoshiki wrapping demonstration at Junk Evolution again for a group of Holiday gift shoppers. They gave me a fresh Christmas swag from the Farmers' Market to me. It is hanging on my front door now. Very lovely gift. I love it.

We bought the Christmas tree today at a fire department. It is a fundraiser for breast cancer. They had good trees and we got a very beautiful one. It is already decorated and sitting in our family room. I really need to make a nice tree skirt this year. (It should have happened many years ago!) I hope I can share some photos of our tree and what I am working on in my studio soon. And hope you guys will survive enjoy this busy week as well. Happy December!

Unique felt brooches

I made some unique felt brooches for my Etsy shop. "House and tree" brooches and flower brooches.

I have been enjoying making various houses with different types of trees, and little heart warming scenes. I hope someone will consider these will make very nice Holiday gifts.

A tall house and a tall Christmas tree.

A house with a red door has snow on its roof. 

 A red barn and an apple tree.

 I added a couple of flower brooches in the shop too. You can get felt sheets in many colors. As I said so many times, it is always fun to play with colors.

These are all available at my Etsy store Harujion Design. And you can see more images of these items in my Flickr pool. Happy felt crafting and Holiday gift shopping (under $30!) !!!