Placing masking tape along the edges will keep them from fraying and getting hooked on your clothing and hands as you work. This works well when you have a hem of six or more rows of holes along the outside edge of your pattern. Place the tape along the edge, covering just one row of holes. Fold the tape over, covering the one row of holes on the opposite side of the canvas.

When you have finished prodding the rug, the canvas should be cut to allow a hem of four blank holes around the outside edges of your rug. Holes along the edge of the canvas should be surrounded by mesh on all four sides. Cutting to close to the outside edge will cause the canvas to unravel. After all four sides of the hem have been cut; the corners will need to be cut to allow for a mitered fold later on. (The mitered fold will look similar to the way the wood meets in the corners of a picture frame.) Cut diagonally across the corners. If your hem is four holes wide, the triangle piece that you cut from the corner, will have three full holes.

Once the hem has been trimmed, place a dot of white glue at each joint in the mesh along the outside edge to prevent the canvas from unraveling. I have purchased Elmer’s Glue-All from my local discount store in the school supplies section and it works well. Allow to dry.

Thread a curved sewing needle with heavy duty thread. I have purchased Coats Extra Strong Upholstery Thread at my local craft store and it works well for this, but any strong thread will work.

Fold each of the corners in first, than fold the sides and pin in place. This will create the mitered folds at the corners.

When sewing, I like to start in the middle of one of the sides and than work my way around the rug. I try not to sew through any of the prodded fabric, just in case the rug needs to be repaired at a later date. Because of this, I don’t always place a stitch in every hole of the canvas; sometimes I sew every other hole, so I can avoid sewing through the fabric.

When stitching the corners, place a stitch in each hole of the mitered corners and pull the mitered edges together making sure to attach the corners to the top side of the canvas. This will help keep your corners from getting “lumpy”. I usually sew up the corner to the outside edge of the rug, than sew back down the corner and continue working my way around the rug.

Once the hem is completed, tie off thread and tuck loose ends under the hem and you’re reading for binding.

See instructions below for using Iron-On Binding.