Sewing shock cord

I'm currently working on my IX UQ and can't figure out to to sew the shock cord to the quilt. I am trying to anchor the end of the shock cord to the end of the gross grain and then sew the gross grain strip to the quilt. Only a portion of the thread is being pulled through. It looks like some of the fibers are breaking and then being pushed back up along the core of the thread. Does that make sense? I tried using a larger needle (16) thinking it would make a larger hole for the thread to go through but no luck.

Is there a trick to this? Would it be better to do the anchoring of the shock cord by hand stitching?

I use a cord lock on all ends of the shockcord to prevent it from being sucked into any of the grosgrain channels.

YMMV

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Originally Posted by Tendertoe

I use a cord lock on all ends of the shockcord to prevent it from being sucked into any of the grosgrain channels.

YMMV

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I believe that most people do the same thing. If you were to sew the shock cord it would weaken it.

I use the cord locks as well on my UQ's.

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Don't know if this will help or not, but I will sew a fixed loop in the end of the shock cord, only sewing zig-zag thru the outer edges.... then I can anchor with a small loop of grosgrain in end. To sew the shock cord loop, get a fairly thick piece of cardboard and cut a rectangle in it length of the sewing area, wide as 2 pieces of shock cord. Use this as your holder for the sewing machine, loop shockcord and lay in the rectangle, and set zigzag with width about 2mm wide. Move shock cord (inside the rectangle guide) thru the sewing machine until you achieve the stitched cord, then you have a loop you can attach to. I do this for the long ends of the UQ, short ends I set shock cord thru long end loops, the use cord locks to constrict and gather the ends.

Since shock cord will degrade over time, I sew loops into my quilts, and tie or use cord locks.

That said, I have successfully run a zig-zag stitch over a small shock cord (think bartack). The trick to keeping it in place was to add a drop of glue to the threads covering the cord, or tie a knot in the end of the shock cord. Doing this really wasn't easy. I'll stick to sewn-on loops and tied cords.

Nice hint on the cardboard, I will be trying that.

I too use the Zigzag stitch and then a couple lines of straight stitch. Held like a champ and cuts down on the, very minimal, extra weight of the cordlocks, also one or actually two less things to break lol.

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Originally Posted by JohnSawyer

Since shock cord will degrade over time, I sew loops into my quilts, and tie or use cord locks.

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You just saved me 10 minutes. This seems like a much better way of doing it.

Thanks for all the help. I hadn't considered the degradation of the shock cord. Instead of sewing on a loop as suggested by Aardvark I think I can just whip an eye loop on the end of the shock cord and attach it to another GG loop.

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