How to get straight piping?

[sittvancouver.com]

Hello,

I am also having problems with straight piping. I am a novice upholsterer, and I outsource my sewing work to a very experienced seamstress. Most of her work has been excellent, but recently I got back two seat cushions that I had sewn with contrasting piping and the piping was not straight. I thought I could fix it by making sure the cushion/foam insert was extremely tight. However, there are still some kinks in the piping. I am not sure if this is a result of the sewing or if it has anything to do with the fabric that was used for the piping? The cushion is a very nice velvet with linen for the contrasting piping.

Any suggests? I'm may just have it re-sewn using a cotton duck fabric for the piping.

Thank you.
Bonnie

[sofadoc]

Sometimes a lightweight fabric welt sewed over a velvet can be tricky. It might help to pre-sew the welt before sewing it onto the velvet. And the cotton duck idea is a good one. And experiment with shorter stitches.
If your seamstress is experienced, she should be able to figure out what it will take to correct the problem.

[baileyuph]

Have you asked the one who sewed the cushion about this problem?  That person may be able to shed some light, since it was done by them.  Get their procedure and steps taken to do the cording and the cushion sewing.  Was the linen cut on a bias, did it lay straight before it was sewn into a cushion?  Of course I might be wrong in assuming that the cording was made by a separate step.

Might get the machine type that was used and come back with your question down in the general discussion area (as a new topic just below this heading).  I am sure there will be some meaningful feed back for you.

If you are new, welcome!

Doyle

[SHHR]

When I started sewing I had the same problem and two thing I discovered were causing the trouble for me anyway. Since your sewer is experienced, she should know, but sewing garments and heavy upholstery materials aren't always the same. Anyway, my trouble at first was, I made all of my patterns with the "witness marks" When sewing the face to the body of say a seat, They wouldn't always line up just right so I would stretch whichever piece needed it as I sewed to get everything in line. I discovered that the welt alway tried to conform back to the original size causing the wavy look when the cover was atretched over the seat. After much patience, practice, and a few choice words I've learned to just let the material lay as natural as possible when sewing. Another problem I found i was doing wrong early on too was, I would lay my roll of welt cord on the ground by or just behind me while I was sewing up the welt to the face. The welt (foam cord) would come off the spool and get in kinks. I would just keep sewing and I think this caused trouble too as I was sewing the cord into the material with a twist to it. After setting up operations better, I have a little bracket made up to hang the spool of welt cord on and it unrolls naturally while sewing with no twists or kinks.
Kyle

[Peppy]

The welt (foam cord) would come off the spool and get in kinks. I would just keep sewing and I think this caused trouble too as I was sewing the cord into the material with a twist to it. After setting up operations better, I have a little bracket made up to hang the spool of welt cord on and it unrolls naturally while sewing with no twists or kinks.
Kyle

Thats what I was going to say. It has to unroll off the spool and not come off the top. More of a problem with poly welt I think.

[sofadoc]

Maybe I read the post wrong originally. I was picturing wavy piping, instead of kinks.