Piping 1, 2, 3

Did you realize that making piping is as easy as 1, 2, 3?  Never again will you be limited to the standard sizes and colors of store-bought piping....I needed a jumbo-style decorative edging to go with Kate's book snuggling pillow and this is what I did:

1.  Gather your materials...fabric strips that are a wide enough to fold around the cording with room to spare(at least an inch excess) and cording or rope in desired width and length for your project.  A little note about the fabric strips, technically you should cut them on the bias which will allow your fabric to curve nicely and allow movement and body to your project.  But for many uses, I simply do not do this. - as it is not needed.  I used this piping for a square pillow and thus movement and "curve appeal" just was superfluous.

2.  Fold the fabric over the cording and using the zipper foot, stitch a seam along the cording-encasing it in the fabric.  The zipper foot is key here as it allows you to get very close to the cording.

When you are finished, you have piping to use on any project that you see fit.

3.  To sew the piping in, on the inside of your project, place your piping-raw edges matching and still using the zipper foot, sew in place.  In this example, I made a pillow.  First, I basted my piping around the perimeter of the front side of the pillow case(as seen in the picture below). I then sandwiched the backside of the pillow on top of the front side with good sides touching.  Lastly, I sewed around the perimeter of the pillow and then turned inside out-as I had an envelope back of which to turn out from.