Smoothing Out Cording on Curved Pillows
The solution can be fairly simple, however you may need to experiment a little with some scrap fabric.
Others may have different solutions. This is my suggestion. The solution has several parts. Read all the instructions before beginning.
1. Summary.
In order for the welt to lay flat in the seam after the cushion is stuffed, both face fabrics of the cushion need to be sewn loose and slightly gathered while pulling the welting tight. As you are sewing, you are slightly pushing the face fabrics into the seam, being careful to line up the top and bottom marks (see #3a below), or have it pinned together (3b below).
Try on a Scrap
2. I would suggest that you try this with some scrap fabric first. This method assumes that you are using two oval type (or curved, arced, etc.) cushion faces, a strip of welting fabric (I cut my welting strips 1 ½” wide), and the inner cording. In this picture, I've only used one piece of fabric ( 1/2 of of cushion) and the welt fabric
(Click on Picture to enlarge)
Keeping Two Faces Together
3. Here are two methods to keep the top and bottom fabrics lined up as you sew. (when you are lightly gathering, it is more crucial to keep the top and bottom fabrics aligned)
A.)To make sure that the top and bottom pieces of the cushion stay lined up, I would suggest that you make marks every few inches on the back side of the seam allowances of both fabrics. ( I do this by laying the fabrics with the faces together and then line up the marks on both fabrics. As you sew around the edges (as explained below) keep checking that the marks on both fabrics are lined up.
B.) An alternative to #2 would be to put both fabrics together, face to face. Next, pin the fabrics together, about 2 inches in from the edge. Space pins ever 4 to 6 inches all around. The pins should help to keep both fabrics aligned as you sew them together.
Snipping the Welt Seam Allowance
4. One problem is that the welt on your cushion is sewn uneven and bumpy, some places are sewn tighter than others. This can easily happen on these oval cushions. To fix this part, (in addition to 3a or 3b) as you sew the welt onto the curved edge, snip "V-shaped notches" in the seam allowance every few inches all around the curved edge. (see Buck's message below) This will help the welt to spread out (like a fan) and lay flat as you are sewing the welt, which will enable you to sew the welt more consistently.
(Click on Picture to enlarge)
Slightly Gather The Face Fabrics
5. A second problem is that the welt was not pulled tight enough when it was sewed (which causes the “snaking) as compared to how much the seam allowances of the faces were pulled. Clipping the edge of the cushion (as explained above) will also help with this problem. The other part of this is, as you sew the welt into the cushion edge, pull the welt (fabric strip and inner cording) tighter than the seam allowances of the pillow faces. This will cause the face fabric to gather* just a little, (slightly like a drawstring purse) which is what you want.
(Click on Picture to enlarge)
(In these pictures, because I wanted the gathering to show in the pictures, I have gathered it more that you would.)
As you are sewing all the pieces together, pull the welt snuggly towards you as you are gently pushing the seam allowance away from you towards the sewing machine foot. This will slightly gather the fabric into the seam. On slight curves, you only need to gather a slight amount. On rounder curves, add more gathering into the seam. This will lightly gather the top and bottom fabric into the seam. Ideally only let it put the top and fabric slightly into the seam where it shouldn’t actually have any folds in the fabric. (* I don’t mean the tight gathering in the traditional sense, which has tiny folds. This slight gathering , in most cases, wouldn’t have the tiny folds. This light gathering is needed to allow for expansion of the cushion when filled.) The amount of gathering at the seams will also be partly determined by how much filling is put into the pillow. Not much gathering is needed on thin cushions, while more gathering is needed on thicker cushions.
This picture shows after it is finished sewing, the welt is tight, but the fabric is not flat, but a little gathered
(Click on Picture to enlarge)
This last pictures show what the welt would look like after the cushion was stuffed:
(Click on Picture to enlarge)
Because I gathered the pillow top more than you would, this would take a pretty thick cushion and notice how the welt doesn't snake, but is smooth. Also note, the sample in the picture is just one side of a pillow, and is only set on top of some cotton. On your pillow, you would gather it less than these pictures, and you would stuff it fuller, since your cushion would have 2 sides. As I said at the top, you need to experiment a little to see how much gathering you'd need to do.
It is so easy in our day to day work in upholstery (or any sewing business or craft) for any of us to space out for a moment, to not be watching what we are doing or to get distracted. The next thing we know our sewing machine isn't sewing right. Any number of things can cause a sewing machine to miss stitches, the bobbin can get tangled up, the needle might split the thread or any number of other sewing irregularities. Many times we have inadvertantly or unknowingly caused the problem and we wonder what happened. Let's examine some possibilities of what might be wrong.
When trying to fix sewing machine problems, make sure that its not a thread problem or an adjustment problem before taking it in to the repair shop.
Did the problem start suddenly or did it develop gradually? If the problem started suddenly, what changed just before the problem started?
First thing to do is the make sure that we set everything back to a known good starting spot. Let's go through the whole thread system systematically.
Other things to check:
In most upholstery sewing that needs a cording we use a 5/32" welting that is covered with fabric. The fabric is cut 1 1/2" wide, usually up the roll. The welt fabric only needs to be cut on the bias if
The welting can be sewn using any of several different methods
An important part of sewing cushions is lining up corners, which is based upon the premise having all the other pieces cut to the proper shape and size. So, we'll begin at the beginning. (This is not how I sew the cushions, but a novice will have a better chance of getting the cushion sewn and the corners lined up using this method.
Pillow Ticking Covers
Whenever a cushion is stuffed with feathers or down, a ticking cover is required to keep the feathers/down from coming through the cover. You can chose from a number of different pillow ticking styles, depending upon the application and your budget. Here are some various style shown.
1. Knife Edge Ticking Cover
The simplest style of ticking cover is the knife edge style. This is basically just two pieces of ticking sewn togther, with the feathers/down inside. This it typically used for throw pillows, although it could also be used for larger pillows, such as backrest pillows on sofas and chairs.
The next ticking style is the Boxed Ticking cover. A very simple style to make, All the feathers and down are in one large compartment. This style is very easy to fluff up. However, one larger cushions specially, when sat upon, some of the filling can squeeze out from under the person to the other end of the cushion.
With time, if used in a backrest cushion, it begins to look a little "poochy"; It doesn't hold it's shape very well. In comparison, look at the picture (#3. below) of the sofa with Baffled Box Ticking backrest cushions.
3. Baffled Box Cushion Ticking Cover
The baffles are added to better control the movement of the filling, keeping it in place under the user.
When the above Baffled Box Cushion is used as a backrest cushion of a sofa or chair, it is used vertically. In this placement the cushions keep a better vertical shape. The baffles help prevent all the cushion filling from falling to the bottom of the cushion.
Here is a sofa that used the Baffled Down Ticking Covers for the backrest cushions.
Building a Firmer Down Seat Cushion
One inherent feature is down/feather cushions is the soft and luxurious feel. However, one drawback is that for all that softness, the cushions have very little "body"; the user can easily feel "unsupported". One solution, is to add more down/feather filling to the cushion to make the cushion firm.. But, in the process, the cushion bulges in the middle and, looses the fluffiness that down is known for. To keep the natural softness of the down, while adding some body to the cushion, is to add an inner core or foam or springs.
4. Box Ticking Cover with Insert
5. Baffled Ticking Cover with Foam Insert
I had a client who wanted his sofa reupholstered. The sofa had down/feather cushions,which he liked, but the cushions didn't give him enough support. So we designed and created a pillow ticking cover with a foam inner core.
We decided upon this design because the client wanted to keep his down cushions, but wanted it to be a little more substantial. Just having the down by itself just didn't have enough support. I had suggested packing the down a little tighter. We tried a sample of that, but that wasn't satisfactory. So we decided on this design because it has a firmer core while still keeping the softness of the down.
Here is the finished sofa.
6. Baffled Down Ticking With Spring Insert
Not Pictured, but this is made very similar to the same design with the foam core. The main difference is that the springs have to have additional padded insulation to keep the springs from wearing holes in the ticking.