The Sewing Place
The Emporia => House Beautiful => Topic started by: JohnSnug on October 27, 2021, 16:53:02 PM
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I'm completely new here and looking to do some soft furnishing items to get me started and understand a bit more about sewing. I've seen cushions online that have the same patterned fabric on the piping as they do on the cushion fabric.
I'm completely new to sewing so it might be out of my depth a little but is it possible to do this kind of piping at home or will it be made with a special machine of some sort?
Home furnishings is the only thing that really interests me and cushions seem like a good place to start, so any info/advice would be greatly appreciated!
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@JohnSnug piping is simply strips of fabric cut on the bias, which is diagonal to the straight grain. This is then wrapped around cord and stitched into a seam.
You can sew piping on an ordinary domestic machine very easily.
If you are a visual learner there are lots of YouTube videos that demonstrate the process.
Cutting the fabrics on the bias gives it the ability to stretch and so go round the corners of the cushion neatly.
Whilst piping isn’t difficult it might be better to try a simple envelope cushion cover first.
Lots of knowledgeable folks on here to help you on your way but be warned you might think you only want to do soft furnishings but we are very good at getting people to do far more than they originally planned :laughing:
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You can also buy ready made piping,
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tho' obviously it wouldnt necessarily be in the fabric you desire but you can get a complimentary colour. this you just wedge the flat bit in between the seams (Right sides together) and away you go
But if a novice I would very much suggest simpler things first.
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Oooh, @Iminei . I need some of that and three minutes ago, I didn’t even know it existed. :laughing:
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Also - HIGHLY recommend a piping foot.
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I agree that something easier than a piped cushion would be a better place to start - perhaps a plain cushion cover with a simple envelope opening.
For attaching piping I always use a zipper foot. It had never occurred to me to purchase a piping foot.
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Also - HIGHLY recommend a piping foot.
It's impossible to make without a piping/zipper foot, but they are available for all domestic machines.
Some piping feet are 'moveable' so that you can adjust a littel so that the stitching is snug against the cord, others are fixed and you need to move the needle to get it snug. Easier done than explained.
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I've made piping since I was a kid. I've only ever used a zipper foot (which comes with all machines), can't even imagine why I'd need a piping foot.
Envelope covers are an option, though I've never cared for them.When a pillow or cushion is used, there is always extra futzing required to straighten the pillow out.
I would suggest practicing installing zippers first. You can rob 2 or 3 from some old clothes or possibly find weird colored ones cheap at a thrift store, but I'd practice a couple of centered applications and a couple of lapped zippers. Most home dec typically uses a lapped application.
Then I would practice covering a bit of cording to make some piping and practices placing it on a corner. Every cushion I've ever made has rounded corners, even if you're making something clean contemporary lines, the filling of any cushion will not fill a sharp 90° corner.
I think starting with a piped cushion sounds doable. I just would not start with my favorite or expensive fabric. Practice a bit and YouTube should be your best friend on this.
I probably go 15 years between piped projects. There's a way to mark the bias strips on your fabric and then lay the ends in a particular way so that you stitch all of them together at once and then cut them so that your bias strips are in one long continuous piece. I have to look that up every time.
Go for it! Gotta start someplace.
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Hi @JohnSnug and welcome to the forum.
Depending on how new to machine sewing you are, first thing I'd do is learn my machine.
Cutting on the bias etc are terms I've learnt over the last year since starting sewing so all that lingo will soon make sense as you go.
I've done piping once and it was for a machine cover I made. I used washing line and covered it with my fabric of choice. I used a piping foot which was included in a box set of sewing machine feet my partner bought me. It does help a lot if the needle on your machine can be moved side to side. Stitching the piping is simply a case of pinning it between fabric layers and sewing it closed. That bits tricky and it took me ages to do. A zipper foot is handy for that bit.
Good luck :)
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@Bill I'm actually seriously asking here, what does that piping foot do? I know you're newer at this, so the difference between it and the zipper foot may have made more of an impression on you. I don't understand what you were saying about the "¿side to side?"movement of the needle. :thinking:
Do you mean if you can change the needle position on your machine the piping foot makes things easier??? The one feature I have missed on my Janome (2 or 3 times over 30 years), that was on my first machine, is being able to move the needle position. Mine doesn't do that.
I bought a set of those 32 sewing machine feet for $18 from Amazon, before all of the feet were individually listed on the website. All I really wanted at the time was a felling foot, and of course that wasn't included in the set. There is a piping foot or two, but I've yet to play with them as they don't work on my main machine.(I'd have to futz with drilling out all of the openings for my needle to clear properly.) Could possibly use them on my Morse, but there are too many other things above that on my "to do" list!
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I've been to look at a few machines yesterday and I'm assuming the 'side to side' setting @Bill is referring to is so you can adjust the needle to be as close or as far away as you want it compared to the piping foot? From what I could see the piping foot just holds it in place but there's no way of sewing at a specific point relative to the foot without that 'side to side' functionality. (I'm sure there's a better term for that! :laughing:). I also could be completely wrong, but the Bernina I tried let you adjust that.
Thanks for all the replies too, gives me lots to google and look into. :D
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Hi @JohnSnug
There’s lots of very good free YouTube sewing tutorials that demonstrate ‘how to’ and I’d encourage you to watch a couple before starting your project.
https://youtu.be/bJwe5bjXAvk This one shows how to make the matching piping cord pieces from your main fabric.
Good luck with your project and remember the cardinal rule….you HAVE to post pictures of your finished project and tell us about the sewing experience. :laughing:
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This is what my piping foot looks like
short YouTube showing off the foot (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3GIrPxIXB7Y)
It makes making and attaching piping super easy, even though I don't use piping often.
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Sorry @Esme866 for not being too clear about the needle positioning. It was late and my heady was fuzzy :) But yes you have my meaning correct.
The piping foot holds the piping in place leaving you free to guide the fabric straight. I suppose it's doable with a zipper foot too but I imagine might be more difficult keeping everything tight.
Others have explained it better than me :S
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I have only ever used a zipper foot* and never had any problems. Not sure I'd want to use clothes line though! I prefer the piping cord that is smooth covered - there is one that's like rope with the twist exposed which I don't think gives a nice finish.
* for double piping you do need a special foot. Not for enclosing the double cords, a zipper foot will do that perfectly well, but for stitching between the cords afterwards.
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Agree about the wrapped (smoother) piping cord, much better finish, look for pre-shrunk if you want to wash the finished article.
I have a piping foot but always use my zipper foot as it gives you much more flexibility on how tight you can get the foot to the cord (and zip when you're attaching it to a piped piece), needle position, width of bias strip you use and the diameter of the piping cord (as it has to feed under a piping foot in a groove).
I find turning the corners on a cushion cover much more straight forward with a zipper foot too.
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@JohnSnug we might have a language difference being on other sides of an ocean and continent or two but we tend to call decorative cushions pillows or toss pillows whether for bed or sofa or chair. My part of the US we most commonly use "cushion" to describe the box edged cushions that you sit upon or lean back against.
I bring this up as there are many types and sizes of piping depending on the use of the cushion, the type of cushion and the "look" you are going for. Piping feet work for basic standard sized piping. Smaller piping and a zipper foot works. The big upholstered furniture type piping is called a welt. Welting is made from special large welt cording similar in size to clothesline line but softer. It comes in several sizes. You can get a welting foot for some machines but again you can use a zipper foot.
There are a number of good books on making pillows/cushions, perhaps available from a local library. As previously mentioned loads of information on blogs, websites and YouTube. Just go to several sources and once you find the same info a few times try that. There is as much bad information on the net as good.
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Agreed - terms are different USA/UK. Here in the UK we don't tend to use the term welting in furnishings although I believe it's used in shoe making.....just piping whatever the diameter or application.
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I use the vintage versions of this (https://www.minerva.com/mp/1151185/prym-sewing-machine-zipper-foot) for piping and for zips, including invisible zips. The neat little foot moves sideways to be as snug to the needle, on either side, as required.
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@Syrinx Thanks for the video, that did confirm the ability to change needle position. I think I had my machine for 7 or 8 years before I needed and therefore realized it does not have that feature.Its no biggie for me.
@Bill I can see where someone newer to sewing may find a specialty foot a bit easier, but I've always simply covered the piping "nicely tight". Then when I stitch it to one side of the cushion I don't bother to make it tight at all, so that when I add the last layer for the final stitching I do apply a bit of extra pressure to get the stitching "snug tight" - and then no stitching shows.
I think I would agree with @Hummingbird that a zipper foot would be easier for turning corners, especially when trying to turn a tight corner (not usually occurring with home dec but quite common if piping a collar, cuff or pocket.)
One of these days, I'll pull out my Morse and play with those 32 feet! :rolleyes:
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Adjustable zipper foot - one of those gizmos you didn't know was missing from your life until you got one! I find it invaluable for lots of jobs where you want the needle to drop very close to the edge of something else and where the normal presser foot would either stop you seeing what's going on or prohibit the exercise entirely.
I have a 40-year old Calvin Klein coat pattern that is part-lined and part-bound inside with self-made bias binding. I've used that binding pattern piece whenever I've needed matching binding. The pattern piece looks a bit like this diagram (knocked up in Power Point, so not to scale!).
The idea is that, having decided on the width of the binding that you want (circumference of piping cord + two seam allowances, one for either edge of binding) and the length of binding you will need, you get a sheet of paper (strip of wallpaper or lining paper is fine if you don't have dressmaker's pattern paper) and draw a series parallel lines equally distanced from one another by the desired binding width. If you want a long binding fewer joins and you have fabric wide enough, you can make the parallelogram wider. If you don't, you can make it taller.
Now you draw two lines at exactly 45 degrees from top to bottom as shown. Then you put a matching-notch at the end of one row and at the other end of the row above. Add a straight of grain arrow also at 45 degrees. Now place this on your chosen fabric, cut it out and mark the rows with chalk, pins, whatever. Match the two diagonal edges at the matching-notches, pin and stitch. You will have a tube that's offset slightly. Cut along your marked lines and you'll get a long strip of binding.
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@HenriettaMaria That's the way I make bias tape, thanks for posting. Only I never make a pattern, I just mark the fabric and since I'm usually going to grade the seam allowances anyway, I'll use whatever is handy for marking, ink pen, pencil, fine tip permanent marker, whatever. It all gets trimmed off anyway.
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I know some people love the method that HenriettaMaria outlined above and find it quick for them. That baffles me. I have repetitive stress issues in my hands and find all that scissors work tedious and freaking slow. I also start wobbling in my cutting because I just don't like the method.
I greatly prefer using a long quilting ruler and rotary cutter. Seaming the strips together is easy peasy quick. I'm done in less time than it takes to mark the fabric for the tube method. Point is experiment and find what methods suit you.
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@Renegade Sewist I prefer a rotary cutter for bias binding from silk or anything slippery, but I wouldn't want to have to cut upholstery fabric that way. Many of the gizmos invented to help with carpal tunnel, or those that others find helpful actually aggravate my carpal tunnel. I'm stuck with "not so bad" arthritis 24/7, but rotary cutters "wake up" my carpal tunnel. Rotary cutters and those irritating vegetable peelers that run perpendicular to the handle - designed when carpal tunnel issues were "trending". Those are the worst!
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I hear you @Esme866 . I found a rotary cutter that has better ergonomics than most. It really helps. Plus I learned how to correctly use it and that greatly reduces the stress. Most people never read the info that comes with their cutter on how to hold it. I'm sure you've also read them.
That 24/7 arthritis. I'm old friends with it. My main problem with all of it occurs at the base of my thumbs, the part that gets a work out from any type of scissors or shears. Spring loaded scissors help a bit but not enough.
We all just need to experiment with different methods of how to do anything to find which ones work best for us.
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@Renegade Sewist I prefer a rotary cutter for bias binding from silk or anything slippery, but I wouldn't want to have to cut upholstery fabric that way. Many of the gizmos invented to help with carpal tunnel, or those that others find helpful actually aggravate my carpal tunnel. I'm stuck with "not so bad" arthritis 24/7, but rotary cutters "wake up" my carpal tunnel. Rotary cutters and those irritating vegetable peelers that run perpendicular to the handle - designed when carpal tunnel issues were "trending". Those are the worst!
Have you not been referred to have a Carpal Tunnel Release operation? I have had three all in all, it's a long recovery and uncomfortable but two of them worked for me. :)
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@Lilian Actually I'm trying to avoid that surgery. My carpal tunnel almost NEVER bothers me except when I use those screwy veg peelers or overuse a rotary cutter and a few other things. I probably only cause it to flare a bit 1 or twice a year.
I basically go with the, "Doc. It hurts when I do this." And Doc says, "Well don't do that!" prescription.
I graduated from uni with my degree in interior design just as all commercial furniture companies were designing furniture meant to avoid development of carpal tunnel - and I sat thru numerous training sessions on the subject. Usually when everyone jumps on the same bandwagon the talk is a bunch of hooey. So of course my first job requiring a computer sat me at a desk at standard height - typing. Only took two months to develop the problem as I didn't realize when I sit, I'm extra short - even though I'm 5'6". Once carpal tunnel starts, if you can avoid that activity or figure out a work around, it usually won't get worse and it will ease up.
I hope your third surgery worked well. A friend of my brother's had to retire 15 years early because of it - after numerous surgeries.
I have a very low threshold for pain, so I make allowances quickly!
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@Lilian and @Esme866 the surgeon told me that ⅓ of the time it makes it better, ⅓of the time it stays the same and, you guessed it, ⅓ of the time you get worse with more problems. As Lilian said she's had 3 surgeries but unless she's extra special only two wrists.
I manage mine by not over doing certain activities.