HELLO! all "sewers" a question on "piping" and logwood thread suppliers

[vamick]

Hey folks..Ive had a few of these suppliers bookmarked in the past ..but with a puter crash and the C.R.S. syndrome..well lets just say Im without a clue..Ive done a lil searching without avail and so I come with hat in hand..to wit: Im not that much of a "sewer" tho I can throw the odd stich Im going to "lightly" trim a shell jacket around the collar and epulettes with ( if I have my drathers) black piping, problem is I cant find suppliers, and maybe more to the point I cant find suppliers of what I "envision"..that is piping with a "tongue" if you will that is to say , round cord wrapped with cloth and sewn together: "welting" would be the upholstering word for what Im looking for..I could make this myself mind ya but Im hoping to find some ready mades out there, and also Logwood thread which Ive seen available in the past...somewhere...any ideas before I chuck it all and go with worsted wool tape?? thanks!!

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

Logwood thread is available at Needle and Thread in Gettysburg (past suppliers have been County Cloth/Charlie Childs, Wambaugh & White, and Ben Tart). As for piping, the problem you'll have in adding piping after construction is that you'll have to completely disassemble the collar and eppaulettes to do it correctly. Piping is always applied while sewing two halves together and then flipped open and pressed. Trim can be applied directly over the top, but not piping without major overhaul. There are some commercially available ready-made pipings, but they are often made of man-made fiber or don't match the look of correct, period piping. Its always best to bite the bullet and make it yourself but just wrapping cloth around the cording. Worsted wool trim may just be the thing to go with for easier operation...

[vamick]

Thanks Ross!!..and yeah I was afraid of "modernisms" in the piping problem I'll probably have to do my own, Ive covered motorcycle seats in leather and made my own welting there but I was hoping for the lazy way out!..my take on applying the piping was that I would rip the seams on the epulettes and insert/sew back together ( the reason I was looking for the "welted" piping versus just a colored cord)..the same could be done with the collar if I only trimed the top edge..tho It would look better of course to do the whole thing..which would get me much deeper in that can of worms..up side is it is January and one "learns by doing"! while Im at it the button holes might as well get the treatment and topstiching...Ive always liked the piping best but wool tape is looking better all the time