Leftovers

Hey Everyone!

We are totally snowed in here, so I figured it was a good time to work on some blog posts!  Hope everyone in the area is doing well and enjoying the time at home.

Anyway, I shared our stair renovation project with you recently, and since I just barely needed three stair runners to cover my stairs, I had some of the rug left over.  I decided to buy a higher quality rug, hoping that it will hold up better on the stairs, and so when I had some left over I didn't want to let it go to waste!  


I'll show you today how I turned my leftovers into a small area rug.  I'm not sure how many of you will make use of this specific tutorial, but maybe it would inspire you to do something similar with a larger rug or carpet remnant?

By the time we were finished with the stairs, I had one large piece of runner and two small ends.  My runners came with the ends finished with a solid grey piece, like this:

So, I needed to make my cut edge look similar.  I thought about just cutting the finished grey edge off and refinishing both ends, but that seemed like a waste.  Instead, I decided to use the grey edge from a small scrap piece to finish the larger piece.  

The first step was to rip out the hem where the end was folded over.  Seam rippers are the perfect tool for this - any store that sells sewing supplies should have them if you don't have them already.  

Next, I cut off the grey edge right where the pattern started (sorry, doesn't look like I photographed it).  Once I had the end free, I sandwiched the rug inside my grey end piece, with the nice folded edge that you see in the pic above on top.  It's not really now the rug was supposed to be; i.e. it doesn't match the other side perfectly, but it at least has a nice edge up top. 

underneath side

"sandwiched" end

To attach the border to my rug, I actually used hot glue.  This rug was made of polypropylene, which is a plastic.  Because of that, anything iron-on, like hem tape, would just result in a melted rug.  Fabric glue probably would have worked too, but I had hot glue on hand.  If you happen to be doing this with a rug made of a natural fiber, hot glue might not be your best option.  I made sure that i had plenty of glue at the edge on both sides, to hold it on but also to keep it from fraying.

This is the end result, a rug for "free", and much less waste from the bigger stair project!  

The end I made is closest in this picture, while the end that came with the rug is on the far side, which still isn't quite laying flat (must have been rolled for a while!).  If you look at it closely in person you can see a difference, but it certainly doesn't jump out at you.

If you do decide to do something similar with a carpet remnant, I have seen products out there that are essentially an iron on edge, to make it look finished.  I think you can also pay someone to put an edge on the carpet.  So, if you can find a large piece of carpet at the right price, that route might be worth it!  We found our large (7'x9') rug for the living room at the Habitat Restore for $35- it's a great place to look.

Any creative ways to use "leftovers" from a project out there?  It's nice when you can buy exactly what you need for a project, but when you can't it's good to be able to use up the scraps for something else.

Have a good week!
~Amy