Make your own pipings

I lately made myself a blouse with quite a bit of piping. I didn't have any at home, and the fabric store is a 25 min. drive away. So I decided to try to make it myself with what I have.

I had some leftovers of yellow cotton/polyester poplin from an earlier project. But I couldn't find anything to pipe with. Luckily the hobby store is only 5 min. away by car and they had polyester cord in the right thickness for just Kr. 5 a meter 😁

So here's what I did:

1- I measured a length of the cord that is enough for the seam line.

2- I placed that on a piece of my yellow fabric that's big/long enough to cover the whole length of the cord. Some would argue that it's best to cut the fabric on the bias, but I fell that makes it more finicky to sew with, and I tried cutting it on the grain then bending it where I needed to bend it and it worked fine. But both options will work if the fabric you're using for piping isn't thick.

3- I folded the fabric over the cord and pinned it in place (actually after a couple of times doing it, I didn't even need to pin it anymore).

4- Then took it to the sewing machine. As with normal piping: to get as close as possible to the cord, use the zipper foot, then stitch a line close to the cord.

Here's what came out of the machine:

5- Trim the seam allowances to 1.5-2 cm and your piping is ready to be used 😄

And here it is in the garment:

To see more photos of the garment, see my entry: The Cat blouse