365 Days of Quilting - Day 19 ~ Making Piped Binding Using Zipper Foot

 Today I prepared piped binding for my next quilt to be bound.

HERE'S HOW I DO IT

As a an heirloom dress and wedding gown maker over the years, I have made A LOT of piping and can do it in my sleep, lol.  Many years ago, when the only other foot I had on my machine was a zipper foot, I perfected my way of doing piping and binding that works for me.

Sandwiching the cording to make the piping

Using 2" inch strips in this case due to the large 1/4" cording....

 I first, sandwich my cording with the raw edges of the fabric perfectly even.  In this case, because I used a fairly large  cording at 1/4" I did pin my edges together.  I normally don't, but I do not have a foot that can ride over the cording and this cording was pretty big.    That's where the zipper foot comes in.

I butt the left edge of the zipper foot tight against the cording.  This works for all size cording.  Both passes of the cording through the machine, first to sandwich and then to attach to the binding, the foot will be in the very same position....riding tight along the cording.

I then move the needle position towards the cording to approximately 1/8 ".  The distance between the tip of my screw driver here and the needle.  I then just sew right down the length.  I usually use a basting length stitch, but in this case I used regular stitching.

Attaching the Piping to the Binding

I cut 3" strips for the binding.  I iron them in half in order to have a "line" to follow for the center.  I line the piping with the stitching just slightly to the right of the center about a 1/16".  That way when I move my needle closer to the piping I will be stitching exactly on the center line.

Making sure the Piping it nice and snug

Notice the zipper foot is butting up against the cording exactly as it was during the first pass of stitching.  What I do now is move my needle to towards the cording.  It will both tighten up the cording to make it nice and round and hide the first row of stitching.

A look at the stitching

Here is what the stitching looks like behind the foot as the piping is attached to the binding.

Here you can see the stitching in front and back of the foot.

Unpressed piped binding

This is how the piped binding naturally wants to lay before pressing.  Notice the raw edges are not even.

This is how I press...

I force the raw edges together with the piping right side up. I then tip my iron using the edge to hold the edges together.  I then drop my iron flat on top of the piping.  It's that easy.  Everything wants to fall into place naturally.

I don't press against the piping or run my iron along the edge of the piping.  The piping will be flatten but only for a moment.  Once you pick it up everything stays in place and the piping naturally lies along the edge.

Pressed piped binding

This is what it should look like after pressing.   FRONT
It looks flat but will round out once you pick it up.

BACK

Finished piped binding ready to attach to the quilt

See how naturally the piping lays on top.  The edges naturally stay together.  There's no need to pin it to stay.

AND MY PIPED BINDING IS READY TO APPLY TO MY QUILT....
TOMORROW :)