Using Welt on a Patterned Fabric

I'm putting this message here in response to the question in an email. A lady sent me a picture of her fabric and asked about welt with her fabric. whether or not you use a welt is purely a matter of personal opinion. some people like welts, some down. For the purposes of this message, I will assume that you will be using a welt. For  the small diamond shape pattern that  your picture showed, if you a welt, I normally cut the welts about 1 1/2" wide. For your type of pattern, I'd cut the cording width so that the middle of the 1 1/2" width is the area between the small diamond shaped dots, like this: [img]/drupal/system/files/u1/PatternedWelt.jpg[/img] The idea is that when you are sewing the welt (by putting the welt inside the welt strips and folding the welt strips in half) is to have NO dots on the top of the sewn welts. It is very difficult to keep those dots perfectly on top of the sewn welt, and the dots would look bad if the dots were off center at the top. So it is better to have the area between the dots as the center of the welt strips. If you are using a home sewing maching, and if you are using a heavy weight upholstery fabric, it would be easier to sew the fabric if you don't have a welt. I would suggest that you cut a few scraps of your fabric and sew some seams with the welt. This might answer your question. Stephen