Loop Pile Rug
by Maureen Williams

Here is a very easy way to make a loop pile rug for your egg art, miniatures or dolls house crafts.

There are now many different ways of printing onto fabric including Celcast Fabric Carrier Sheets, T-Shirt Transfer paper, fabric sheets from your computer supply outlet or by making your own fabric sheets using Heat ‘n Bond.

Heat ‘n Bond, which can be purchased by the metre or in pre-pack quantities from craft places like Spotlight or Lincraft in Australia, is used to apply pictures to t-shirts, children’s clothes or other similar items. 

In egg artistry you can apply pictures cut from material or pictures you have printed out from your computer by applying heat to the material using a heat gun rather than ironing the material as you do for t-shirts etc. Technique instructions for Heat 'N Bond are included in Bright Ideas & Facets of Egg Artistry - Book Two. 

You will need:

A suitable image printed onto fabric
Small piece of felt
Small piece of Heat 'N Bond
Small piece of gimp upholstery braid (optional)
Bunka yarn in your chosen colours
Tacky Glue

I have used Paint Shop Pro to design my rug but any paint program could be used.

Start with a new transparent image larger than you want the finished rug as this makes the design process easier. As a guide, mine was 250 x 325 to start with and after I finished my designing I resized it to 6.5 cm x 8.5 cm or 185 x 245 pixels.

Use dingbats or apply the kaleidoscope effect to an image to achieve your desired rug design. I have used the Borderbats Filigree font - capital letter S for the corners , W and X for the borders. The centre image is from the Designs Galore font. Download these two fonts HERE.

Use the Deformation tool to rotate the dingbat to fit in the corner. When you are happy with the placement, go to the Layer Palette and Duplicate the layer.

Image/Mirror to place the dingbat in the opposite corner. Turn off the background layer and Merge/Visible on the two corner dingbat layers. Duplicate the layer and Image/Flip to place the corners at the bottom of the rug.

Continue in this manner to complete the side borders. Using a new layer for each dingbat will make it easier to position the borders where you want them.

Once you have completed designing your rug Image/Resize to your desired size. If you choose the Actual Size option make sure the Maintain Aspect Ratio box is checked. After you resize go to Effects/Sharpen to restore the clarity of the image. Save your file.

1. Print your rug image onto a piece of cotton material using your favourite method.

2. Iron the printed material image onto a piece of felt. Trim the felt back to the edge of the rug.

3. Finely cut the unravelled bunka yarn. (Tip - don’t sneeze or blow!)

4. Use a glue bottle or a toothpick to apply tacky glue to a small area of the rug and apply the finely cut Bunka yarn to achieve the “loop pile” effect. Continue to cover all the rug in your chosen colours.

To finish off your rug glue a piece of bunka yarn (do not unravel) or a cord from the upholstery braid around the rug to cover the edge of the felt.

Optional - Glue fringe on the underside of the rug and trim to desired length. See below for hints & tips to make the fringe.

Fringing for the Rug.

The backing from Gimp upholstery braid (sometimes used around lamp shades and other craft items) makes an ideal fringe for your rug. Locate the thread used to hold the braid together and pull gently to separate the cords and backing. While the backing is still held together on either side, glue the fringe onto the back of the felt and then trim to the desired length.

Cut a piece of Heat ’n Bond to the size of an A4 sheet of paper and then iron it onto a piece of cotton lawn or voile. Trim the material to the A4 size of the Heat ‘n Bond, making sure to remove any loose threads. This will give the material enough body to be able to feed it through your printer to print your designs onto. I suggest you test your printer’s fabric printing requirements before attempting to print your final image.

To save having to fill a page with possibly unwanted images when printing onto speciality papers, print a draft copy of your desired image onto a plain sheet of paper, leaving a border 25 mm at the top and along the edge of the paper.

• Cut a piece of speciality paper approximately 10 - 20 mm bigger all round than your desired image.

• Tape the speciality paper securely over the draft print. (Hold it up to the light to check the position) Use Micropore (a non-stick plaster available from the chemist), magic or masking tape and be sure press firmly down around the speciality paper so it doesn’t catch when you feed the sheet of paper through the printer.

• Set the printer to the appropriate setting for the medium you are printing on to and feed your prepared sheet of paper through the printer as per normal.

• Allow the ink to dry thoroughly before removing the tape from the speciality paper.

If you don’t want to design your own rug here are a couple of sites where you can download printable rugs and these can then be covered with Bunka. You can also scan rug images from advertising catalogues.

http://www.printmini.com/printables/p1.shtml

http://smallstuff-digest.com/rugs.htm

http://jdayminis.com/

Although this is not the normal use for Bunka, it is perfect for the effect we want to achieve. Raelene Lines from Mt Barker in South Australia has all colours of Bunka thread available to purchase through mail order.

For more details on testing your printer, printing onto speciality papers and other hints and tips for using your computer for your craft work, I have produced a video cd-rom to play on your computer titled Computer Awareness for Egg Artistry. The video has lots of information for both egg artists and miniature or dolls house enthusiasts alike and was produced as a follow up to my computer seminar. The cd-rom also has a .pdf file of the class notes from the seminar.

I hope you enjoy making these little rugs. If you have any queries don't hesitate to contact me.