Making Piping with Bias Binding

Learn how to use bias binding to create your own piping for home dec and garment embellishments. Kristie Smith shows you how easy it is to make your own piping.

Leftover quilt binding is perfect for making diy piping. Piping is simply a cord covered in a bias strip. The size cord you use determines the size of the piping. Baby piping uses a roughly 2mm macrame cord, crochet floss, or yarn. Kristie recommends using a cord that is a little firm and doesn’t stretch too much. Some yarns and cords may be better suited for turning into piping than others.

Regular piping uses 4-5mm cord, while jumbo piping uses larger cord.

Some sewing machine feet are specifically designed for sewing piping, as they have grooves on the underside. However, you can also just use a zipper foot to sew piping. A pintuck foot is suitable to use for creating and sewing mini piping, as it has small grooves on the bottom.

Kristie demonstrates how to cover your cord or floss using a bias strip. Kristie’s strip is 2 ¼” to 2 ½” wide, though your strip can be narrower.

Begin by pressing the strip in half. Place the cord in the center of the strip at the crease. Clip or pin the cord tightly to the center. Increase the stitch length for this initial stitch to encase the cord within the bias strip. Move the needle position over and stitch close to the piping, but not as close as possible. When the piping is stitched into the final project, you will move the needle over to stitch as close as possible to the piping, to cover up this initial stitch.

Trim the bias strip to correlate to the seam allowance of whatever project it is being applied to, measured from the piping stitching line. You now have custom made piping, ready to be attached into any home dec or garment project!

For more DIY embellishments, check out these videos:
Ric Rac Finishes
Decorative Stitching With a Twin Needle
How to Sew Lace Towel Embellishments