A problem-solving adventure

When I began working on these flanged, ruffled, welted shams, I way overestimated my machine's ability to sew through so many layers.

Count the layers: sham front, front lining, sham back; flange front, fusible batting, flange back; self-lined ruffle at 3x fullness; and...... that lip cord. 

Long story short: it was impossible to sew all those layers together.  My only option was to take the lip off of the cord, and hand-sew it after assembling the shams without it.  The problem was that this sort of lip cord cannot be woven back together as some can.  The fill is covered in a woven sheath, and the ribbon and cord are braided around it.

I took apart enough ribbon to make woven "bandaids."  Double-sided tape on a small square of fabric provided the base. 

The three colors of ribbon were woven onto the adhesive, then trimmed and folded into a cover for the loose ends.

It's pretty cool!

The seam was opened enough to slip the bandaid in.

The cord was taped at each end....

Then taped together....

The bandaid was wrapped around the cord and tucked back into the seam, which had to be sewn shut again, by hand, through all the original layers plus the bandaid with its adhesive- thank goodness they were done at that point!

By the way, the pieced pillow in front of the shams: fully lined and serged, and pieced on both sides.