Make Your Own Piping – it’s Easy ~ DIY Tutorial Ideas!

Creative Daisy did a great tutorial on making piping, though I’d already made mine by the time I saw it. However, the zipper foot she used was different to the zipper foot that gets bundled in with lots of machines so I wanted to show you it was still possible if you have the regular kind of foot.

(This is part one of my cushion cover techniques tutorial, which includes piping and installing a zip to the back panel.) Look here: How to Make Zippered Cushion Covers >>>
The first thing you’ll need is bias tape, and the easiest way to get some that matches/contrasts with your chosen cover fabric is to make your own. I cannot recommend the following method highly enough. It’s so easy you’ll just be making bias strips for days afterwards.

Make the Continuous Bias Tape:

Ingredients:

A square of your chosen fabric – My fabric was about 30cm square and I ended up with a strip over 4m long, perfect for my 50cm square cushions.

First take your material, and cut in half corner to corner (along the bias), so that you have two triangles of fabric.

Pin two of the straight sides (ie not the sides you just cut) , right sides together, as shown above. Sew together with a quarter inch seam and press the seam open.Laying the fabric out flat it will now be shaped like a parallelogram:

Draw lines across your fabric 1 inch apart, parallel to the longest side ie, from a to b, not from a to d. This will be the finished width of your bias tape so you might want to make it larger or smaller depending on the size of your piping cord.

Fold the fabric together, right sides facing again, to form a seam with the short sides. You are aiming to make a tube of fabric. Make sure that you:

Offset the lines by one width – you need a start and an end to your strip
Match the lines perfectly

Sew the seam together as before, and press open.

Now cut along your lines, round and round you go, until you end up with a lovely long strip of bias material.

You’re done!

Make the Piping:

Now, beginning two inches in from the end of the strip, pin your piping cord inside the fabric, folded over in half, wrong sides together. Use the zipper attachment on your machine to sew the cord into the fabric.

Tip for novices: nothing will ruin a cushion faster than a visible line of stitching on your finished piping. Instead of sewing right up against the cording, sew a few millimetres away. When you attach the piping to the front panel, sew inside this line (see end of post for a picture), and when it comes to sewing the layers together only then do you butt right up against the cording. Voila – guaranteed hidden stitching!

Attach the piping to the fabric panel:

Fold over the end of the fabric strip like so:

This will provide a cosy home for the other end of your piping when you come back to meet it.

Pin the piping around the edge of your front fabric panel on the right side. Curve the piping around the corner, and clip up to the seam allowance to make this easier. (See Autum’s tutorial for what happens when you use fabric cut on the grain!)

When you meet the beginning again, cut the piping to fit snugly right up to the cord end and pin it down inside the folded fabric. This will give you a really neat finish with no unsightly seams or ends.

Using the zipper attachment again, sew the piping to the panel by stitching close to the cording. The bulk of the piping will fit under the ‘wing’ of the foot, though you will have to persuade it to stay under there.

Foot Tip: There are two kinds of zipper foot. Mine, shown above, is good for cording up to about 5mm in width. For wider cording, or to get a much closer stitch you will need an adjustable zipper foot, as see in Autum’s tutorial. (Janome Adjustable Zipper Foot.)