I plan to use the black cotton piping to replace a tie and it will work nicely. It feels like a good quality and will work well for my purposes. Dark black, not grayish. Over 5 yards.  Having said all of this, I never hesitate to update my reviews should new info seem useful. All of my reviews reflect my honest, personal experience with the reviewed item - your experience may be different. I am not influenced by any outside source. I receive/accept NO free products or discounts that are not available to all shoppers- ever. For some reason our shopper ranks are no longer visible - so, to give you a little more info about me, I am a top 50 reviewer (#30 the highest rank achieved). Those numbers used to fluctuate over time - up and down but I noticed that they stopped updating regularly - perhaps to phase them out. It's a shame because it did help you see who has been around the longest and who is a trustworthy reviewer.  I've been doing reviews for over 25 years with Amazon - over 6,000 reviews posted, those reviews have been viewed well over 50,000 times, including well over 25,000 likes. Bottom line, I pay for all my stuff, just like you do.