Finishing the Jane Nursery Rug

Once a rug or project is finished it must be blocked.  Above is the Jane rug plus a few other projects I stitched to use up the leftover fabric to the best advantage.

​To block a rug, I use a piece of grid paper or a paper with straight lines on it that I have placed inside a clear plastic sleeve.  I pin it to a firm background that I had left over from my younger days when I did macrame.  It is some sort of firm fibre that holds thumb tacks easily.  I start with one edge of the rug and firmly tack it down, using one of the grid lines for a guide.  Once the first side is tacked down, I tack one of the ends.  All of the tacks are placed on the extra silk gauze that is around the rug, not the rug itself because the tack will create a hole similar to the one you can see near the upper right-hand side of the picture above.

While tacking, I stretch the rug a bit, keeping the rug on the line.  The next side and end are tacked in the same way, trying to keep it as straight as possible, using the lines as a guide.  Once all sides are tacked down, I steam the rug with the steam setting of my iron, without touching the rug.  I let the rug dry, then add more tacks to straighten the edges, as needed.  I often use a ruler against the edge to make sure I am straight.  I repeat this several times until the edges are as straight as I can get them.  This process can take several days to weeks depending on how much straightening the project needs.

After the blocking, I cut the fringe along the outer edge and fold the gauze under towards the back of the rug.  I press the edge down and cut it off short (leaving two rows of gauze).  I will put small dots of fabric glue to hold the gauze down and press with the iron.  Then I carefully work on the sides.  I roll the rug up carefully and turn the long edge under, leaving 2 rows visible.  I finish the sides using an overcast stitch and two strands of floss. I overcast over the two rows and through the folded gauze.  After the overcast is done on the edge, I cut the gauze as close to the stitching as I can.  Here is the finished Jane rug:

You can see how small the rug is as my thumb is in the bottom right corner.