The Making of a Wool Binding......My Way!

I wanted to update you on the finished Penny Circle Rug so that you know I actually did finish it. I am so wrapped up in my current Birch Tree Rug project that it's hard to go back now and do a post on the Penny Circle. If you have followed me at all you will remember that I was trying a new type of binding or finishing the edges on this rug. I used wool strips that I cut from the back of a wool blazer. Now this may or may not be an "approved" method and no one told or taught me how to do it this way. I figured I'd try it and see if it would work. What would I be out if it didn't work? Well, the wool in this jacket was fabulous. A perfect weight for hooking. Once I cut the strips on the bias it probably wouldn't work so well for hooking because it would stretch too much. Plus, it was a beautiful plaid texture with blues and dk. browns that would hook a nice background. So after a little hemmimg and hawing I took the Fiskars after it!
Before I actually started cutting though, I took a yardstick and a piece of chalk and drew lines on the bias all across the back(seems ironed flat) as you see in the above photo.
Next I took those strips and sewed them altogether to make one long strip. I found a piece of cording I had in my sewing stuff and using the zipper foot on my machine, encased it, and made a piping like you would sew around the edge of a pillow.

The back of the rug with binding complete
Now I wouldn't say I had a lot of fun sewing the darn thing onto the rug. It was tedious and hard to get it sewn close to the edge of the hooking. There is probably an easier way to do it, but since I am a lone ranger here with no hooking group or teacher to ask for help, I forged ahead on my own. After a few (three) evenings of hand sewing the binding it got much easier. I really like the way it looks. Yes, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I like it that much! It just really gives this rug a beautiful and I hope durable finish. Pretty classy looking if I may say so!

Here is a close-up of the binding the way it looks on the edge and top.

So for now it rests on the bed in my studio. The painting above the bed is one I painted a long long time ago in my college days. The old building has long been torn down. My art teacher used to tell us to get out there and paint all the old buildings we saw in the country side because one day they would all be bulldozed, never to be seen again. This one stood near a wooded area near my parents homestead. We kids used to think it was haunted. Of course we thought all of the old abandoned buildings were haunted. Most of them have long since vanished.