Sewology Saturday - Making Piping

Tomorrow we will be posting a tutorial on making the Arcadia Avenue Pillows, so today we thought we should have a quick tutorial on how to make piping. We use piping not only in those awesome pillows, but also in our Daily Duffle bag pattern. Piping gives home dec projects and bags a nice completed and professional look and it is pretty easy to make!

Step 1: Cut strips on the 45 degree bias. (When making the Arcadia Avenue pillows with the 1/4" cording, cut your strips 2” wide. When making the Daily Duffle bag with the 3/16" cording, cut your strips 1.5" wide.) Cut a 45 degree corner off the the piping fabric. Fold the fabric in half along the new cut edge and cut the strips.

Step 2: Sew the fabric strips together end-to-end with a diagonal seam. Iron the seams open.

Step 3: Place the cording on the wrong side of the fabric strip in the center. Fold the fabric over the cording making sure it is snug.

Step 4: Sew close to the cording without sewing on it. We suggest using a “stitch-in-the-ditch” foot (shown in the photo) with the needle position in the center. (You can also use a zipper foot and move the needle position towards the cording.)

Step 5: Once you have sewn the entire length of your fabric, trim the excess fabric to a ¼”. We use the Piping Wizard to make this step much simpler.

Refer to the Arcadia Avenue tutorial for instructions on how to attach the piping to your projects!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to pop back in tomorrow for a tutorial on how to make the Arcadia Avenue pillows! Now that we have the piping made, they will be easy-peasy!