Bias Binding

This posting will be a tutorial on making continuous Bias Binding. Several of my quilting friends have asked how to do it. First why bias binding? Why not just cut width of the fabric strips, join them and be done with it. Well because when I first started quilting bias binding was what all the books said to use. I learned to quilt from books, PBS shows and "well I'll try this and see if it works" method. There are other reasons to use Bias binding. If you go to Pirate Rodgers (here) has tons of information about Bias binding and why use it. She also has charts and a lot of other information. I'm not going into some of very basic things. You need to know how long your binding will be. To get that add 2 X the width to 2 X the length. My quilt is 97 X 80. 97 + 97 +80 +80 = 354. I add at least 5 to 10 inches to that. There are tons of charts out there that will tell you how wide you will need to cut your bias strips and how much fabric you will need. The link above has the charts, How to quilt books will have them, you can buy laminated cards that give you the information. Now on to making the continuous binding.

You will have a rectangle or maybe a square of fabric. Lay it out on your cutting table and cut a corner off of it at a 45 degree angle starting one corner as shown in the picture.

Now take that corner you just cut off and move to the other end of the fabric. You are going sew what were the two ends right sides together to make a trapezoid. I use a 1/4 inch seam allowance since that was what my machine was set up for. This blue fabric is not the binding I'm using it is just easier to get a picture of the end result with the smaller piece. Notice the ends of the piece are sloping in different directions. It DOES NOT look like a triangle with the top cut off. I press the seam open. Now comes the part that takes the longest. I first draw a line 1/4 inch from both long edges. Make sure you can see the lines. I used a thin marker on this fabric.

Now you place your ruler along the edge of the short sides and start drawing lines however wide you need to cut the strips. In my case they are 2 inches.

Make sure you can see where these lines intersect the 1/4 inch line along the side.

Once you have drawn all your lines it is time to pin. You will be pinning the long sides together. You first have to cut a few inches along the 1st cutting line at one of the ends. It has to be a corner where the point is. The fabric forms a 45 degree angle not the corners where the fabric forms a wide angle.

You make this cut because when you bring the sides together you offset the ends, that cut edge matches up with the corner on the other side.

I find it easiest to stick pins through the intersections of the cutting line and the seam line on both sides then pin between them. Make sure you line up those intersections.

When you get to the end the last strip will be left hanging, remember you off set the opposite side at the top.

Now you sew.

This seam throws people off sometimes because it curves around the tube you are creating. Take it slow and remember try not to sew over those pins! I use a 1/4 inch seam allowance, if you made sure you could see those lines I told you draw along the long edges you can use those as a guide for your stitching. You now have weird looking tube. You need to press the seam allowance open. I have a couple of things from when I actually sewed clothing. One is a clapper. I slide it into the tube, maneuver the seam allowance over the narrow piece of wood (I think it is for pressing points in collars and such.) and press the seam allowance open. Somewhere I also have stuffed tube thing for pressing sleeves (it's buried somewhere in my sewing area) I've used that before too iron this type of seam.

Now you can see where the cutting lines just spiral around the tube. You are now ready to cut. You can use scissors or rotary cutters

but BE CAREFUL not to cut through to the other side of the tube. I put a small cutting mat inside the tube no matter what method I use. Most of the time I take the binding tube, the mat and scissors and watch TV while cutting. Cut along the lines you drew. Now you have this long long strip of bias binding. I spray starch and fold my binding in half and press.OK I hope you could follow those instructions. Mine are a combination of what I've found on websites, in books and discovered myself by trial and error. Have fun quilting.