Glossary

The terms here are all demonstrated in the gallery to help with your finishing choices:

Knife-edge pillow

A single seamed pillow with top and bottom faces.  Can have welt, cording or other trim in the seam.  No boxing or gusset

Boxed pillow

A pillow with a top face, bottom face, and a boxing or gusset (usually 1 ½” – 2 ½ ” wide ) in between the 2 faces.  Will have welt, cording or other trim along the top and bottom faces.

Boxing

The narrow (usually 1 ½” – 2 ½”) fabric gusset between the top and bottom faces of a boxed pillow.    

Welt, Welting, Welt-cord

An unfinished rope material that is covered with narrow strips of fabric and sewn in the seam(s) of a pillow.  The most common finishing detail for pillows.

Self-welt

A fabric covered rope in the seam(s) of a pillow made out of the same fabric as the rest of the pillow.

Contrast welt

A fabric covered rope in the seam(s) of a pillow made out of a different fabric from the rest of the pillow.

Cording

A purchased ready-made decorative trim that comes with an attached flange or lip that allows it to be sewn in the seam(s) of a pillow.

Trim

A general term for a decorative detail added to a pillow.  Decorative cording, brush fringe, tassel trim, gimp are examples of different trims.  Most trim is sewn in the seam of a pillow, but some tassel trims with a decorative tape and gimp trim are made to be topstitched.

Inset

A 4-piece fabric frame that is sewn around the needlepoint, usually with mitered corners.  This helps show off the canvas especially along the bottom edge.

Topstitched

A smaller needlepoint can be topstitched  (especially odd-shaped canvases without 90 degree corners) on to the face of a pillow (as opposed to inset)  Decorative gimp tape is sewn on top to cover the raw edge of the canvas. 

Gimp

A flat decorative purchased braid that is sewn to cover raw edges of a needlepoint that is topstitched on a pillow.