Practical introductory sewing guide - Soft Furnishings Sewing Techniques

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Soft Furnishings Sewing Techniques

Our second introductory guide builds on your basic sewing skills by introducing you to the special sewing techniques used in the making of soft furnishings. This includes sections on piping techniques, mitres, contrasting bindings and lippings, as well as basic trimming designs.

If you have experience of dressmaking but are trying your hand at soft furnishings for the first time, this is the guide for you! Our range of "Teach Yourself Soft Furnishings" sewing guides use many of the techniques covered here. If you are planning to buy one or more of the project based guides you will find that the relevant extracts from this introductory guide are included in each project guide to help you along!

Price: £7.99 / $15.90

Overview

A quick and easy way to master specialist soft furnishings sewing techniques

Teach Yourself Soft Furnishings Sewing Techniques provides easy to follow sewing instructions for a wide range of techniques from piping and mitred borders to jointing trimmings, as well as an introduction to decorative trimming designs. Read the contents section to find out more!

This unique introductory guide is great value for money and is provided as an immediate download after purchase, in Adobe PDF format, for you to read, print and re-use again and again.

Click here to view a small excerpt from the guide
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Are you a complete beginner? If so, why not download our free introductory guide to Basic Sewing Equipment and Techniques to get started?

Contents

Section 1 Piping Techniques	Lots of soft furnishings items, particularly cushions, benefit from having piping applied to seam lines. It gives extra strength to the seams as well as giving a lovely tailored look to the finished article. The piping and face fabric can be one and the same, or the piping can be made of a co-ordinating or contrasting fabric.
Section 1 Piping Techniques	Instructions for making up piping casings Two methods for jointing piping cord
Section 2 Mitres Including Decorative Mitres	Instructions for making a folded mitre used on a curtain hem Double mitre Applied mitred border Contrasting mitred border with a bound edge
Section 3 Applying a Contrasting Binding or Lipping	Many items benefit from the addition of a decorative binding or lipping. Valances are a particularly good example, as a binding to a lower or upper edge adds definition. However, for a binding to look good it is important that you follow a few basic rules! If the binding is not applied correctly, when the item is placed in front of the light you get what we call in the trade "shadowing". In other words, the internal layers of fabric are visible and this looks very unsightly. This section of the guide teaches you how to avoid this problem in several easy to follow steps.
Section 4 Mitring and Jointing Trimmings	When applying trimmings to soft furnishings items, it is important to know how to mitre corners and how to cope with joining lengths of trimming. This section contains a few handy suggestions on how this can be achieved effectively. Mitring a continuous length of trimming Joining trimming on the straight or diagonal Joining lengths of flanged cord Joining lengths of ruched trim
Section 5 Identification of Basic Trimmings	The choice of trimmings available today is virtually limitless, in terms of both design and colour. Here we help you to identify a few basic styles.

Next steps

If you would like to purchase our guide to specialist soft furnishings sewing techniques, simply click on the 'Add to shopping basket' button at the top of this page. Your guides can be paid for quickly and securely online and will be available for immediate download after purchase.

Related features:

If you are new to sewing and would like to learn more about the materials, equipment and basic stitches and seams involved in making soft furnishings, then print out our free beginner's guide now!