Saturday, June 21, 2014

Cutting out piping before slip covering

This little tutorial is the answer a great question I received this morning in my Craftsy Class. The question is
the arm chairs I want to slipcover have existing piping. How do I handle that?
My answer is that you cut it out. I have a chair I want to slip cover, so I will show you on it.

 

Step one: Clip as close as you can to the attachment point of the piping on both ends of a length of piping. You can pull that length of piping out from one of the ends.

If you know you will be cutting the fabric away, you can make a slit at an easier place to pull from. You will still need those clips at the ends to free the piping.


Step 2: Pull out the piping.

Step 3: I find that the fabric that went around the piping is almost as bulky as the piping itself, so I like to cut it away completely. Just be careful you do not cut the seam. As you can see, the upholstery is still passable with the piping cut out, so if your chair has to be uncovered for a couple of hours while you wash your new cover, it will look okay.
I hope that helps!

4 comments:

  1. Very clear instructions. Thank you! I am enjoying your class on Craftsy and found the link there.

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  2. Very clear instructions. Thank you. I found the link from your Craftsy course.

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  3. I just signed up for your Craftsy class have have been enjoying the videos so far and can't wait to start. I have a follow up question to this post. Our newly reupholstered furniture has piping around it but I still want to make slipcovers so I can change up the look or protect it when the kids have lots of friends over, etc. I obviously don't want to cut off the piping on brand new upholstery. What would your suggestions be for creating slipcovers?
    Thanks!

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  4. Jen, In your case, I would leave the piping on of course and probably make the new cover with no piping. Another option would be to off-set the new piping just inside or just outside the existing piping. I hope that helps!

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