I started at the bottom with both of my sets of cloth bars, and I twined the end with dark Wal-Mart twine. Looks good, both on the silver (which turned out tan-ish), and on the red (which went oxblood). With the red, I shellacked heavy and fast - it took forever to dry, and ultimately looked like crap. The silver is gorgeous, but I put two coats on the first two nights (about 6 hours apart) and then would put on a coat a night for a week until the fabric was filled in. It feels like silk and is wearing really nicely.