This rug was finished poorly: the fringe were tied with large, uneven knots.

We opened the original fringe knots and retied the fringe with small, even knots, which greatly improved the overall look of the rug.

The fringe at the end of this rug had become worn and needed to be replaced.  By hand, we attached fringe in a strip along the edge of the rug.  We choose a shade of fringe that is compatible with the coloring of the rug - either white or natural cotton.  In this case, white fringe was used.  Replacement fringe should be attached to a handmade rug by hand, not by machine.

You can see from the back of the rug, that the original fringe, which was heavily worn, has been clipped short, very close to the knots.  Leaving the knots intact will prevent the rug from unraveling.

Sometimes we feel that the white flatweave at the end of the rug (called the kilim) is too wide and does not balance well with the overall look of the rug.  After untying the fringe knots, we can remove weft threads from the kilim, in essence "unweaving" it, to make the area narrower and less prominent.

The customer who purchased this rug did not like the appearance of fringe on the ends of the rug, however, almost all hand-knotted rugs have fringe.  In order to hide the fringe from view, our craftsman folded it over and then sewed it into a canvas pocket on the back of the rug.  By doing this, we keep the original foundation threads intact and eliminate the display of fringe that the buyer disliked.

The edge of the rug is turned over so that the canvas pocket containing the fringe is visible.  In the future, if the owner of the rug would like to restore the fringe at the end of the rug, the pocket is easily removed.