Creating Continuous Bias Binding

Bias binding is a great way to finish off the edges of projects with curves. However creating long strips of bias binding can be difficult and require lots of fabric. Nicki LaFoille shows you how to create continuous bias binding in long strips from one rectangle of fabric and shares several other tips to making your own binding.

Prepare

The first steps in creating continuous bias binding is preparing your fabric. Nicki shows what markings are needed on the fabric including marks to differentiate the top, bottom and sides of the fabric once it is cut as well as markings according to the finished width of the desired binding. Nicki shows how to make all of these marks as well as shows where to mark the seam allowances. A ¼” seam allowance is used for this continuous bias binding technique in order to maximize fabric usage. Once the fabric has been marked Nicki shows how to pin the two edges of the fabric together to create a tube. The tube is slightly twisted because of how the lines are aligned and Nicki explains why this is important with this technique. She also gives a fun tip on how to use a straight pin to ensure the lines are being lined up exactly.

Sewing and Cutting

Once the tube is pinned, Nicki shows how to stitch along the marked seam allowance. She then presses the seam open and explains how to cut apart the tube. Because of the way the fabric has been align, cutting the fabric creates one long strip of continuous bias binding. The most important aspects of this bias binding technique are ensuring you have the correct ends of the fabric aligned when stitching to ensure the binding turns out on the bias and offsetting your lines when sewing and cutting to ensure you get strips of binding rather than several stitched tubes.