Care

Rug Fringe: Why It’s There, How to Clean It, and Whether to Cut It

By Storied Rugs8 min read

In stock now: 2006 Persian rugs

Low close view of the dense, short ivory fringe at the end of a deep red Baluch rug on pale gray painted floorboards, armchair behind

On a hand-knotted rug, the fringe is the ends of the warps, the lengthwise threads that every knot in the rug is tied around.^[1] They are left over where the rug was cut from the loom, which is why almost every Persian rug has fringe at both ends. The fringe is part of the rug’s structure, so cutting it off is a bad idea. On machine-made and tufted rugs, the fringe is usually a separate strip sewn on for looks.

Navy Isparta rug with a burgundy border and fringe at both short ends on pale boards in a white paneled front hall — An Isparta, 3 feet 6 inches by 6 feet 6 inches, in a front hall. The fringe at each end is the warp, the lengthwise cotton that runs through the whole rug, so the long sides have none.

Why rugs have fringe

A knotted rug is built on a loom strung from top to bottom with warp threads. The weaver ties rows of knots across them. Between each row go the weft threads, which pack the knots down and lock them.^[1] When the rug is finished, the warps are cut from the loom, and their loose ends become the fringe.

Something has to stop the last rows of knots from working loose, so the ends are finished off. Usually there is a narrow flat-woven band, or the warps are tied in small bundles, or both.^[1] On some rugs one end shows loops instead of cut ends, where the warp was wound around a bar on the loom.

Do Persian rugs have fringe?

Almost all of them do, at both ends, because almost all of them are made this way. What varies is the length and the finish. The fringe on our rugs is short and trimmed, about an inch (25 to 30 mm).

Many Persian and Turkish rugs, including every rug we sell, are knotted on a cotton foundation. That is why the fringe is usually white or ivory cotton even though the pile is wool.^[2]

A Persian rug with no visible fringe has usually lost its ends to wear. They may have been cut back and secured, or turned under and sewn, and the back of the rug will show which.

Small Baluch mat with a cream field and deep red border on whitewashed boards beside a bed, short white fringe at both ends — A Baluch, 2 feet 4 inches by 3 feet, beside a bed. The pile is wool, but the short fringe at each end is white cotton, because the rug was knotted on a cotton foundation.

Sewn-on fringe on machine-made and tufted rugs

On a machine-made or tufted rug, the fringe is often a strip of cotton or synthetic tassels stitched or glued to the finished ends. This is what shops sell as rug fringe tape or fringe trim: a row of tassels on a woven tape, made to be sewn or glued along a rug’s end. Two quick checks tell you which kind you have.

First, follow a fringe thread with your fingers. On a hand-knotted rug it disappears into the body of the rug, while a sewn fringe stops at a line of stitching or a tape. Second, turn the corner over. A tufted rug has a cloth backing, with the fringe attached on top of it. How to tell if a Persian rug is real covers the rest of the checks.

A sewn fringe is only decoration, so taking it off won’t harm the rug, though the end underneath may need its own binding. A warp fringe is different, because it is part of what holds the rug together. Fringe tape cannot stand in for it, and it does nothing to hold the knots of a hand-knotted rug.

Can you cut the fringe off a rug?

You can trim it, but don’t cut it off. Trimming it shorter is fine, as long as you leave enough to keep the end secure. Don’t cut into the knots or the woven band. That is what we do with our rugs. A short fringe still keeps the knots locked, and it is less likely to catch in a vacuum.

Cutting the fringe off completely is another matter. Without the warp ends, the finish at each end can work loose, and then the knots start to come out. Each row you lose takes a little more of the border with it. If a fringe bothers you, trim it to a short, even length, or ask a restorer about securing the ends. Cutting the whole rug down is a bigger job, covered in can you cut a Persian rug.

Don’t glue it, tape it or pin it under, because all three damage the foundation. For the same reason, don’t trim a curling end to make it lie down. How to flatten a rug has safer ways to fix a curl.

How to clean rug fringe, and why white fringe turns yellow

To clean rug fringe, shake or comb out the loose dirt, dab it with a little wool-safe detergent in cool water, blot it clean and dry it quickly and flat. The details are in the list below.

Cotton picks up dirt more easily than wool does, and the fringe sits exactly where shoes, floors and spills meet the rug. Cotton that gets wet and dries slowly can also turn a yellowish brown, which cleaners call browning.^[3] After fifty years, a vintage fringe is ivory rather than white. That is normal, and it doesn’t mean the rug was neglected.

Looking down at the end of a red and green Torkaman rug on dark walnut boards, its short ivory fringe lying flat — A Torkaman, 2 feet by 2 feet 7 inches. After fifty years and a wash, cotton fringe settles to a soft ivory like this, and it won’t turn bright white again.

Keep the vacuum off it. A beater bar grabs the fringe and chews it.^[4] Lift the vacuum over the ends, or use a hand tool on suction only while you hold the fringe flat. Small rugs can simply be shaken. A robot vacuum needs the same care, as our post on robot vacuums and wool rugs explains.
Straighten tangles gently with your fingers or a wide-toothed comb. Don’t pull.
Spot clean sparingly. Dab on a little wool-safe detergent in cool water, blot it off, then blot again with plain water. Test a small spot first, keep the water out of the pile next to the fringe, and dry the end quickly and flat. The full method is in how to clean a wool rug at home.
Treat real stains by type. Wine, coffee, mud or a pet accident that reaches the fringe needs the method for that stain, and rug stain removal sets each one out.
No bleach. It weakens cotton, and any that runs into the wool next to the fringe strips the dye for good.^[3]

If the fringe has turned gray with years of dirt, the whole rug is due a professional wash. A specialist can give the ends extra attention at the same time. A wash usually brightens a yellowed fringe, but old cotton rarely goes back to bright white, and bleach only weakens it.

How to repair rug fringe

A worn fringe is repaired by securing the end of the rug, not by replacing the fringe itself. The aim is to stop the last row of knots from coming out.

Look at the ends every so often. Watch for a few signs. The fringe may be worn almost to nothing or have gaps in it. The woven band may have worn through. Or tufts of pile may be coming loose along the end. An end that isn’t secured unravels one row at a time, so it is cheap to fix early and expensive to fix later.

Pink and burgundy Bakhtiari rug on light oak, its end folded back to show the knotted back and a stitched line above the fringe — The back of a Bakhtiari, 2 feet 9 inches by 3 feet 3 inches. A line of stitching runs across the base of the fringe and holds the last row of knots, so the end can’t unravel.

A restorer can secure an end in a few ways. One is to stitch across the base of the fringe to lock the last row of knots. Another is to rebuild the flat-woven band. Where the fringe is already gone, the restorer secures the knots at the row where the rug now ends.

Can you fix rug fringe yourself? Not properly, because repairs like these are done with needle and thread by someone who knows how the rug is built.^[5] What you can do is stop it getting worse until a restorer sees it. Don’t pull or snip loose threads, and keep the vacuum and heavy traffic off that end.

A new fringe can be sewn on for looks, but it doesn’t do the job of the original warp. Every rug we sell has its ends checked, and secured where needed, before it is listed, as how our vintage rugs are washed and restored describes. Persian rug repair covers the other repairs a rug may need.

The one rule to remember

Trim the fringe if you like, but never cut it off or cut into the knots behind it. Keep the vacuum off it, skip the bleach, and have worn ends secured early. The rest of the care routine is on our rug care page. Most of the rugs linked here come from our mini and accent collection, where the photographs show the ends clearly.