Rugs come in standard sizes and sometimes those standard sizes just don’t work for what we need them for. In my case, I purchased a beautiful ten-foot runner rug from the marketplace for a fraction of what it would cost new. The problem with it was that it was too long to fit in my hallway. I either needed to find it a new place to live or figure out how to resize a rug. Because it was so affordable, I decided that it was time to do some rug surgery.

Here is where it all started:

To fit in my hall, the rug only needed to be about eight inches shorter.

The first thing to do was figure out where the cut needed to be made. I measured the amount of total length that I needed to remove and then divided it in half. That gave me the number I needed to cut from both ends. To make the a straight cut, I simply folded the rug and took my time cutting a SUPER straight line.

After I cut off the appropriate amount, I then put a strip of duct tape along the entire width on the back side of the rug.

After that, I cut the edge binding from the scrap strip so I could secure it to the freshly cut edge.

Duct tape alone will not hold the rug together. Over my years of being a crafting addict, I have discovered that hot glue has a magical ability to hold fabric together and keep it from fraying. I put a bead of hot glue right up against the freshly cut edge of the rug. After that, I snuggly pushed the edge binding into the bead of hot glue and held it tightly together until it cooled. I did this in smaller sections until the entire width of the rug was together.

This worked out better than I expected it to and I’m happy with how it turned out. It was a much better alternative to purchasing a whole new rug! The average guest isn’t going to know what the back of this rug looks like unless they are spending time inspecting it.