I am trying piping a round bag and am new to this.
I wanted the advice of all those who are aware of this.
Do you’ll use any cord when doing a piping? If you do, do you’ll use a plastic cord, foam cord or a 3-4 mil rope, or don’t use anything at all and just fold the leather .
I normally do small bags which won’t be larger than 20 cm.
What is your advice on applying and stitching the piping neatly as you cannot really see the piping side until it is done and stitching thru layers is hard.
Hi Sam, I’ve had failures and successes with piping. Here’s my current process.
I cut the width of piping with a little excess width for trimming. For example, if piping width is 3.5 cm, I will cut piece 4 cm. I skive leather down to about 1 mm. Thinner leather goes around curve smoother.
I use paracord inside piping. Nice size, easy to find, cheap. I mark center of piping, glue everything up and use bone folder to push leather tight around paracord. Next I trim piping so I have a clean, consistent piece of piping.
I glue piping to gusset. I sometimes stitch the piping to the gusset to hold it in place. It depends on how big, how tight the curve, whether leather holds nicely when glued, etc.
For me, this step changes based on leather thickness and so other factor. If leather is thicker, I punch holes in gusset/piping piece, I punch holes in body and then line them up and stitch. If leather is thinner, you can more easily feel the piping and get your stitches where they need to be. I glue the body to the gusset/piping piece, punch holes and stitch away.
I use higher stitches per inch when I sew piping.
If I’m lining, I roughly true up edges because they won’t be seen. If you will be able to see the seams, then I go through the truing, sanding, painting process.
Let me know if you have any questions. I take lots of pictures so I can remember what I did and I’m happy to shar.