My Daughter and I need
to complete her lovely orange dress. I’d decided to use bias binding at the
neckline. As I don’t have a fancy bias binding maker as demonstrated on the
Great British Sewing Bee, I’ll have to make it the old fashioned way.
How to make bias
binding.
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| Rectangle of fabric |
First take a rectangle
of fabric cut on the straight grain. I use the selvedge edge as my long edge,
which helps line up the fabric. I’m using the same fabric as the dress as I
want the binding to match – you could always use a contrasting colour if you
wished.
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| Marking the strips |
Mark the fabric with tailor’s
chalk of a special water-soluble pen designed for fabric. The lines should be
drawn at a 45-degree angle to the selvedge edge and no less than 1 inch (2.5cm)
wide. A clear quilting ruler is ideal for keeping an even width between the
lines. You could also apply inch wide masking tape to the fabric and remove
once the strips are cut. Personally I use the width of my metre ruler, as I
find it gives the perfect finished width to the bias strips.
Cut the strips.
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| Pin strips together |
If you need a long
piece of bias binding you will need to join several lengths together. You need to
join to create a straight length with even edges. Pin the strips together at the end, creating
a V shape as shown in the photograph. The ends should overlap in such a way as
to create small triangles at either end. This will ensure that your bias strip
has a straight edge. Stitch and secure with a backstitch.
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| Sew strips together |
Press the seam open
and trim the seam allowance.
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| Press open and trim seam |
As bias binding often
encloses the raw edge of another piece of fabric it is folded in half and its
raw edges are enclosed. To do this fold
and press the strip in half along its length.
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| Press the strip in half |
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| The fold after pressing |
Open the strip out and
fold the edges into meet the centre fold and press. This can be quite fiddly
and can take a little practice to get the hang of it.
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| Partially pressed strip |
Fold along the centre
line again and press once more. This completes the bias binding.
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| Completed bias binding |
How and why to use
bias binding.
So what’s so special
about bias binding?
Bias Binding has a lot
more stretch than fabric cut on the straight grain. Just try gently pulling a
woven fabric across, then down and then at an angle (bias) and you’ll see what
I mean. This means that it will follow curved edges much better and is
therefore ideal for necklines, armholes and curved hems.
Bias strips also tend
to fray a lot less than the straight grain which makes them ideal for finishing
a garment, both on the outside as decorative features and to give a couture
finish to the insides of a garment.
I’ll show you just 3
ways to use bias binding to finish a curved edge.
Enclose the raw edge.
This is the easiest and most straightforward technique.
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| Pin through all layers |
Simply pin the bias
binding to the edge making sure that you pin through all (5) layers of fabric
and stitch them together.
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| Stitch through all layer |
I’ve used this method when making summer dresses and
tops with spaghetti straps.
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| Summer dress technique |
Stitch in the ditch.
This
takes a little more time but will almost hide your stitches.
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| open the strip and pin to the curve |
Open the bias
strip out and pin the first fold (right sides together) to the curved seam.
Stitch carefully.
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| Stitch along the fold line |
Fold the rest of the bias binding to the wrong side and
ensure the raw edges are enclosed. Pin to cover the stitching.
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| fold over and pin through all layer |
Stitch from the right side, along the seam
line. Using a matching thread will mean the stitched as less obvious. You could
also hand stitch from the wrong side to avoid any stitched showing.
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| stitch in the ditch |
Bias facing.
This can
be used instead of a regular facing. Begin as you did for the stitch in the
ditch method, but this time trim the seam allowances to 1/8 inch, fold the bias
strip to the wrong side and pin down, enclosing the raw edge.
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| Fold all the bias binding to the reverse and pin in place |
Hand stitch using
a whipstitch, this should only catch a few threads and very small stitches can
be seen on the right side.
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| Stitch the facing in place |
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| Completed whip stitch from the wrong side |
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| Completed whip stitch from the right side |
There are many more
ways to use bias binding, but I hope you found this tutorial useful.
