We love the red piping outlining the center square of this pillow. Piping is basically a thin piece of cord covered in fabric. It's often used along seam lines as an accent or highlight. You can buy piping pre-made in a variety of colors, or you can make your own. Either way, it's a great tool for adding professional punch to your sewing projects. Pow!

This project uses the Zipper Foot. This foot is often included in the accessories that come standard with a sewing machine. Besides inserting zippers, it's a great foot for sewing piping. This is because the edges of the foot are not very wide, and that allows you to stitch up close to something with bulk, like piping or zipper teeth. Read more about piping and its cousin, cording.

Sewing Tools You Need

• Any Sewing Machine (we recommend the Janome AQS2009)
• Zipper Foot

Fabric and Other Supplies

• Fat quarter (18" x 22") Fabric A (for internal square)
• ¼ yard Fabric B (for border)
• ½ yard backing fabric
• All-purpose thread in colors to match fabrics
• 1½ yards pre-made piping in contrasting color to fabrics
• 20" pillow form
• Scissors or rotary cutter and mat
• Seam ripper
• Pins
• Ruler
• Iron and ironing board

Piping can be found in a variety of thicknesses. This project works best with a thinner variety of piping. Wide piping is used most successfully along the outer edge of a pillow. Thinner piping will look better along a flat seam between two fabrics. If you're just starting out, use pre-made piping. Once you've got that nailed, learn how to make your own piping.

Getting Started

Cut:

1. Cut one 12½" square from Fabric A
2. Two 4½" x WOF (Width of Fabric) strips from Fabric B
3. Cut each Fabric B strip into a two pieces, one measuring 4½" x 12½" and one measuring 4½" x 20½". You will end up with four pieces of fabric: two 4½" x 12½" and two 4½" x 20½".
4. Two 20½" x 14¼" pieces of backing fabric.
   

At Your Sewing Machine

Use a ¼" seam allowance when sewing this project.

Insert the Piping & Create the Pillow Top:

1. With 12½" Fabric A square right side up, pin the piping to the fabric, corded side facing in. Start in the middle of one side and go all the way around the square, leaving a 2" tail free. Be sure to line up the edge of the piping's insertion fabric with the edge of the main fabric square.
   
2. BEFORE YOU START SEWING WITH THE ZIPPER FOOT, be sure to move the needle to the left. You need to do this for two reasons. First, and most important, there is not a hole in the center of the Zipper Foot, so you have to move the needle over or it will simply hit the foot and break. Second, you want to get as close to the piping as possible, and this will allow for a tighter seam.
   
   
3. With the foot as close to the edge of the piping as possible, stitch the piping in place. At each corner, stop with the needle down, lift the presser foot, and pivot the fabric 90˚.
   
   
4. Continue sewing the piping around the Fabric A square until you are back to where you started. Cut off your excess piping, leaving about 1".
   
   
5. With a seam ripper, peel back the fabric to expose the cording.
   
   
   
6. Trim the end of cording tail so it exactly meets the end of the sewn-down cording. Fold under the end of the loose fabric to create a clean edge and wrap around the ends. Overlap about 1/2" and stitch in place, matching your seam line.
   
   
   
7. Clip the insertion fabric of the piping at each corner to allow the piping to lay flat in the seam. When clipping the piping, be sure to clip within the seam allowance – do not clip through the seam or through the stitching that holds the internal cord in place.
   
8. Pin a 4½" x 12½" Fabric B strip to the top and bottom of the 12½" Fabric A square. Right sides together – right side of Fabric A facing the right side of Fabric B. Be sure the edges of the piping are enclosed between the pieces of fabric.
   
9. Flip over the "sandwich" you just made and place on your sewing machine so the wrong side of the Fabric A square is facing up and the wrong side of the Fabric B strings are facing down. This is backwards to the way you would traditionally sew, but there's a reason: now you can see the back of the seam you just made in steps 3-4 to sew the piping to Fabric A square. So ........
   
10. Stitch the Fabric B borders in place, using the seam line created when inserting the piping as a guide. Stitch exactly on top of the existing seam to make your new seam. (Remember to remove the pins as you go; don't stitch over your pins.) Start and stop at the existing corners. Remember to back stitch.
    
    WHY AM I STITCHING ON TOP OF THE OTHER SEAM, YOU ASK???? Because then you know your seam will run perfectly alongside the piping, giving you a clean edge. Otherwise, you risk stitching too far away or too close, which means when you fold back the seam to reveal the piping, you would see either a big chunk of the piping's insertion fabric (too far away) or you'd see where you accidently bit into the piping itself (too close).
    
11. Repeat steps 6-8 to attach the 4½" x 20½" Fabric B strips to the SIDES of the Fabric A square.
    
    
12. Fold back your sewn borders and press, clipping seams as necessary to allow everything to lay as flat as possible. This is your finished pillow top.

The pillow sample in our photo features mitered corners instead of square corners. A mitered corner is a corner seam that comes together at a precise 45 degree angle, like a picture frame. This is an advanced technique. If you're ready to try it, read our article How to Make a Border with Mitered Corners

Create the Pillow Back:

1. Take one piece of your backing fabric, and turn under the right side of the fabric ½" along the entire width of the piece (the 20½" side in our sample). Press.
2. Fold under an additional 1½" and press.
3. Edgestitch along the folded edge to make a clean double turn hem.
   
4. Repeat steps 1-3 with the other piece of backing fabric.
5. Take both pieces and overlap the hems to yield the correct finished height (20½" in our sample). Pin hems together.
   
6. Working as close to the edge as possible, stitch the sides of hems together to secure and create one piece. It's easier to work with one piece to stitch front to back.
   

Finish the Pillow:

1. Place the pillow top and pillow back right sides together.
2. Pin along all four sides.
3. Stitch around all four edges of the pillow cover.
4. Trim all four corners
5. Using the envelope opening on the back, turn the pillow covering right side out. Push out the trimmed corners from the inside to make nice, square corners on the outside. Use your finger or a blunt edge tool, like a large knitting needle.
6. Insert the pillow form and fluff out the corners.

Other machines suitable for this project include the Brother CE-5000PRW and the Viking Emerald 116.

Comments (3)

memoki said:

	... Terrific step-by-step... thank you! I'm adding this one to my projects-in-waiting list
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June 22, 2009
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MIMARY said:

	... My seam shows when I sew the pillow sides together? Should I not stitch closely to the piping when attaching it to the first layer? Also it seems that when I do that the piping seems to twist and catch when I am sewing it together.
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August 03, 2009
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alison.newman said:

... Hi MIMARY, One trick you might try for hiding the seam is to sew the fabric around the cord a bit loosely at first - just give it a hair of breathing room. This way the seam is a bit further away from the piping, and gives you more room when sewing the pillow sides to it. If you do this, be sure to sew very close when attaching the pillow fabric to the piping, so that the cord isn't swimming around in the insertion fabric - you want your finished piping to look nice and tight. I too have trouble with the piping twisting as I am sewing it to the fabric. I haven't learned a proper trick for avoiding this, but I just continually smooth it out as I am stitching. I also practice a deep breathing technique I'm asking some friends who sew professionally about this - I'll let you know if they have any proper advice!

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August 05, 2009
Votes: +0