Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Welting/Piping Cord Tutorial

I always thought welting was such a luxurious finish to a project.  Then I learned how to make it during my upholstery class and I realized how easy it was.  Insert Christmas present from my mom and we have no excuses not to use it everywhere.....

To get started, you'll need a sewing machine, a welting foot (notice the channel on the left):


And welting or piping cord:




Measure the length of the area you will cover.  In my case, it was the perimeter of the ottoman (84") and cut 1 1/2" width of material that length. (OK, I only eye-balled the 1 1/2" and clearly went off track a bit.  I suggest measuring)


My material wasn't 84" long so I had to cut 2 strips and join them.  To do this, you angle the corners on top of each other and sew diagonally across from NW to SE corners. Trim the excess.


When you open it, it is a straight line


Then you wrap the cord in the cut trim



Feed it thru the welting foot channel


And sew about 5 inches at a time, making sure the cord stays wrapped the entire time.  


I should have used a different color thread, but technically that part isn't supposed to show anyway.

Now I have to measure and cut the top and sides of the ottoman and sew this trim in between.  I'm hoping it will slip right on like a glove......we'll see about that.

2 comments:

  1. Great tutorial Katie. I think people are put off upholstery because it looks too hard but when you break it down like this it's not so daunting.(Prom dresses, now that's a different ball-game!) I don't have a welting foot, just use a piping foot. I might just have to invest in one I think. Emails are back up and running btw:0)
    Angex

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  2. How cool is it that I was recently wondering how to do this....thank you! PS I love your work!

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