Friday, April 27, 2012

The Pied Pipers of Piping

Until we started this project, I took cushions for granted. I never appreciated the piping, the fullness, or the fit of the fabric to the form or springs beneath. Helping Mimi while she made three couch cushions- from the springs up- gave me a new level of respect for the meticulous attention to detail and the patience required in creating cushions. Here's how Mimi did it:
 You may remember the big fluffy cushions from the previous post. Each of those cushions was wrapped tightly in canvas so that if we need to remove the covers for washing, we can easily get the cushions in and out without too much hassle.
 We used heavy duty thread a little darker than our fabric to create the piping for the cushions.
 To create piping, you purchase the bare piping.  Then you take long strips of your fabric, cut in the diagonal and with the bias of the fabric and sew them together end to end.

 Then you lay the piping cord in the middle of the long strip of fabric, and folding the fabric in half, hem the piping cord into the fabric.
 This piping then gets pinned onto the fabric squares for the cushions, and sewn onto the edges of the fabric.
 Mimi sewed a zipper into the back portion of the fabric after she sewed piping onto all the edges. This will make the cushion covers easier to clean.
Slipping the pillow in, she zipped up the cushion cover and... voila! 

What, oh what, would I do without Mimi? My couch would be cushion-less! 

-Domestic in the District

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