I went out into the tipping rain yesterday for something to make piping from, and gravitated to V V Rouleaux, thinking I would pick up some of their piping tape and save myself a whole heap of trouble. It wouldn’t have been very interesting for you though, would it? Perhaps that’s why there were only four colours available, and none of them any good. So I bought this splendid satin ribbon instead, even though I knew it would be slippery to work with, and to be honest, it’s not bias cut so I’m really asking for trouble later, and may end up having to unpick and do this all again with something more suitable.

The things I do for you…Although it’s my bag, so technically it’s for me. I’ll call it a learning experience.

First thing first, measure out your cord – you need 108” or 3 yards, and fold it inside the ribbon, pinning as you go. This will take longer than you think because of the slippery nature of the ribbon – have a nice song on to hum along to so you won’t get cross.

Attach your zipper foot to your machine, and sew the cord into the ribbon by sewing a single line of straight stitch. You want to sew close enough so that the cord doesn’t start to slide out and can’t move around too much, but don’t sew right up to the cord. You don’t want a tight fit yet – you’ll do that when you attach it to the bag and you don’t want to see any stitching on the finished bag.

And here is the finished result – neat (mostly) and ready to attach. If you’re eager to know how to attach it then see Lisa’s whole and unabridged piping tutorial

In the meantime I’ll just admire how nice this looks next to the fabric, while worrying about possible screw ups when I come to finally sew it on.