Or piping hell? Pinning it to the main panel was fairly straightforward, although I could tell that it didn’t much like the curves. The pattern tells you to trim the excess before you sew, but I wasn’t sure this was the best idea, especially considering my use of non biased casing for the cord, so I left it dangling and only cut when I’d finished sewing.

And into the machine we go. The trick with attaching the piping is to sew to the left of the original line you made when you made the piping. This may well be the moment where you find yourself wishing you’d made it perhaps a couple of millimetres to the right. But take a deep breath and squeeze it round. Because the piece is mostly curved, I took it fairly slowly and tried not to rush.

There are a few wobbles here that I could be happier with, but then I’m not very happy with the fact that my fabric is so off centre. I am pleased with the way the piping looks againts to fabric though, so next time I’ll definitely contrast texture as well as colour for the piping.

And then the bottom panel. With corners. Now if only I’d read the instructions instead of just looking at the picture. Do not do as I did, and pin the piping all the way round, like the picture above. It made my life just that bit harder, and my corners more rounded. Instead, according to the written instructions you should sew the piping up to half an inch from the end and only then clip and turn the corner.

It’s done, and it’s ok, but it’s certainly not as neat as I’d like. That’s probably a combination of my fabric choices and my increasing frustration at the same. Lessons to learn, self: don’t sew with a heavy heart. It is what it is, and you never know how it will turn out in the end.