Finishing Tufted Pieces

Depending on the use of your tufted piece, you’ll need to clean it from time to time, especially if you’ve made a floor rug, tufted garment, or pillow. In general, it is not recommended that you machine-wash a tufted work, particularly because most adhesives are not washable. 

Instead, we suggest you: 

• Vacuum your work periodically using a hose attachment, or with the vacuum “beater bar” removed (which can suck up and damage fibers, especially on high-pile rugs).  
• Use an undyed cloth or towel to dab up any liquid spills immediately. 
• Spot-clean stains by hand using a damp cloth and a neutral soap, but never soak your rug in water (since this can break down or dissolve some adhesives). 
• Only machine wash or dry clean your piece if you have previously tested these cleaning methods with the materials used in your piece. 
• Have your rug professionally cleaned. 

This is a conundrum artists have all the time - what is a fair price to charge and how in the world can you figure out what that is? We created a spreadsheet to help figure this out! It includes 2 options for determining a price:                     

We have created an easy to use calculator here.

We developed this website after years of pricing and selling rugs ourselves. There is also an option to drop in an image and it will tell you how much yarn you need for your rug!

If you’re making a rug intended for floor use, you might opt to have it professionally finished, since this will extend its lifespan and make for a polished final look. Many rug and carpet repair services offer rug-finishing, including serging or binding, at reasonable prices. 

Below is a partial list of businesses that offer rug-finishing, but if you don’t see your region on this list, you might reach out to local rug stores or carpet manufacturing businesses for recommendations. 

• Bond Products, Philadelphia, PA
• HM Nabavian & Sons, New York, NY 
• Better Carpet Warehouse, Brooklyn, NY
• PAFCO products, Buffalo, NY
• CBS Carpet Binding, Hyattsville, MD
• Atiyeh Bros., Portland, OR 
• Da Burns, Seattle, WA
• Dallas Carpet Binding, Dallas, TX

Tufted work is finished differently based on the use, presentation, and intended lifespan of the piece. The following recommendations for primary adhesives, backing cloths, and contact adhesives are categorized by project type, and have been tested by Tuft the World. Bear in mind that some of these products might not be available in all countries (*international tufters, see bottom of this page). 

Rugs, mats, or other floor pieces you want to last: 

• Primary adhesive: Synthetic Latex Compounds like the one we sell, are both strong and long-lasting. Synthetic latex is thick, and can be spread onto the back of your rug with a putty knife or gloved hands. Our adhesive can be watered down so it's easier to brush or roll on. 
• Backing cloth: We highly recommend backing any piece intended for the floor. Final Backing Cloth, Felt Backing Cloth, or Action Bac Backing Cloth are all great options for finishing rugs. Upcycling a durable fabric you already have is also an option. 
• Contact adhesive: Gorilla Spray Adhesive or Roberts 8200 both work well or adhering Final Backing Cloth, Felt Backing Cloth, or another substantial fabric to your rug. If you’re using Action Bac or another fabric with an open weave, avoid spray adhesives. Only attach these using the primary adhesive.

Wall pieces, pillows, or other objects for the home that won’t go on the floor and don’t require maximum flexibility:   

• Primary adhesive: Any Polyvinyl Acetate, like Elmer’s or wood glue, can be easily brushed onto the back of your piece.  
• Backing cloth: Backing is generally not necessary for wall hangings, but if you’d prefer to back yours, we recommend Action Bac Backing Cloth or Final Backing Cloth. Whether or not you’ll want to back other creations for the home might depend on their use and whether or not the back of the tuft will be exposed (ie. a tufted chair seat doesn’t need to be backed, but a trivet for your table should be).
• Contact adhesive: You should only use contact adhesive, like Gorilla Spray Adhesive or Roberts 8200, if you are applying Final Backing Cloth or another substantial backing fabric. If you’re using Action Bac or another fabric with an open weave, avoid spray adhesives. Only attach these using the primary adhesive.

Garments, garment-attachments, accessories, and other wearable tufts demanding high flexibility:  

• Primary adhesive: Brushable latex is highly flexible, as is iron-on interfacing. Both will keep yarn-ends contained and in place.
• Backing: If your piece is a tufted garment or accessory, we recommend lining it just as you would any coarse fabric. 
• Contact adhesive: If you’re planning to attach a tufted piece to a garment, we recommend doing so by sewing, and/or with Gorilla Spray Adhesive or Roberts 8200. If your piece is itself a tufted garment or accessory, attach the lining by sewing. 

Watch our ultimate finishing guide here: 

*Every country has their own versions of adhesives. If a product listed above isn’t available in your country, try testing an adhesive containing similar ingredients. This is a list of adhesives available outside of the U.S. that have been recommended by tufters in our Online Community Forum.  

• Pattex PVC and Carpet Glue & Design 

• Lugato PVC Coating adhesive

• Thomsit T440 

• UZIN KE 2560

• Dunlop Carpet and Cork Glue

• Roberts 679 Carpet Latex

• ABC Multibond

• Leinos Naturlatexkleber 720

Because tufting relies on strands of yarn staying in place in a piece of cloth, gluing and protecting the back of your project is an essential part of creating a finished product.  

There is no one way to finish a tufted piece. How you finish yours will depend on which materials are available to you, and what you intend to do with the work (wall hangings, for example, are finished differently than rugs). To find the finishing procedure that’s right for your work, be prepared to do some independent testing of materials and methods. 

Generally the steps to completing a tufted piece are:

1. Determine the best primary adhesive (used to adhere yarn strands to the tufting cloth) based on the presentation of your piece. 
2. Work adhesive into the back of the piece while still attached to the frame, then let dry.
3. Once the adhesive is dry, remove the piece from the frame.
4. If you want to back your piece, decide on a type of backing cloth. 
5. Adhere the backing with contact adhesive or another adhesive backing method.  

There's an array of techniques for applying these steps, many of which are demonstrated by tufters on video and social media platforms. Tuft the World’s Online Community Forum is also a great resource for swapping tips and soliciting advice.

This is an optional step that is specific to cut-pile tufted pieces. Some tufters prefer to even out the pile of their whole piece, for an extra-clean look, while others prefer to use trimming, rounding, and shaping techniques to create varied textures and pile heights. 

A variety of tools traditionally used for hair-trimming and animal shearing can be useful for shaping. Tuft the World’s Carpet Carving Clippers are good for detailed trimming and adding dimension, while our Bent-Handle Shaping Scissors or Duckbill Scissors are helpful for by-hand trims. Sheep shears are recommended to level your pile, pair the shears with our Shearing Guide for added ease, and to prevent gouging your finished piece.