Welt Cord Tutorial

It's that time of year to update outdoor cushions, change out the sofa pillows, and put on the spring slipcovers! 

When sewing a pillow or cushion with covered welt cord (piping), you can join the ends by simply lapping one side over the other and sewing down, or you can actually sew the ends together for a nice professional finish.

It takes a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it, it's easy. Refer to this post to see how I cut the welt cover in strips and join them.

(for single welt, I cut the strips 1 1/2")

Have you tried this method? How do you sew welted pillow covers? Would love to hear from you!

Have an awesome weekend!

Read more...

Antique Indoor/Outdoor Chairs and Double Welt Tutorial

Remember that old eastlake style chair I was going to start on? It's been painted (love it!!), but put that aside while we worked on 2 others. I'll post pics of that when it's done. We got these chairs sprung up and upholstered. All the padding and fabric is appropriate for use in a protected outdoor area, or a powder room.

What we started with

And now!

 I'm going to show you how to make the double welt that is used to trim out the edges

How to sew double welt on a walking foot machine

My industrial machine is a Chandler that I bought last year from Bob at Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines.

It's the second machine I got there - great place. Go there to buy yours!

Ok, start out by cutting your fabric strips on the bias. I cut mine 2".  You'll want enough strips to make the length you need...

Then sew the strips together like this. I don't show it, but trim off that corner to reduce bulk.

I use a double-welt foot. Makes life easy. The 2 channels ride right on top of the cords. This is for 5/32" cord - which is what I use in my shop.

It's a 2 step sewing process. Sew in one cord, then the other. With fabric right side down, place cord on the left.

  Fold the fabric over the cord from left to right, just enough to cover. That cord will be fed in to the left channel of the foot.

(when you come to where you joined the strips, finger press that seam open and continue folding over and sewing)

Next take the welted fabric out of the machine and turn it around so that you can sew in the second cord. 

Notice you start right side down, second cord on the left. Now tuck it in close.

Hold on to both cords and fold over from right to left. You'll be sewing on the right side of the fabric now. Makes a neater double welt and draws the 2 cords together nicely.

Stitch in the ditch...or right over the first stitch.

See how the 2 channels of the welting foot ride on top of the 2 cords?

As you feed it in to the foot, use your left hand to tuck the cord in close, the right hand to fold the fabric snug over that cord.

Then trim off the excess fabric

And you've got yourself double welt trim to attach to your chair!

Read more...