Seamingly Beautiful Quilts: Bias Binding... A Tutorial

Did you ever see a pattern for something that had rounded or scalloped edges and wanted to try it but because it called for a bias binding, shied away?? Yea, me too. I've never had the courage to try a bias binding or attempted anything calling for bias binding. I guess it was a fear of the unknown vs. an unwillingness to try. I took a binding class once and we spend about 30 seconds covering bias binding, I still shook in my boots anytime I heard something needed bias binding. Until today.

I enrolled in this awesome class through the Craftsy website called Quilt-As-You-Go Patchwork Bags taught by Tara Rebman, and the first lesson is a (QAYG) potholder with none other than curved edges!! Well, I told myself I needed to put my big girl panties on and give bias binding a shot. None of the classes I'm enrolled in cover bias binding so I set my wonderful search engine to the task of finding me instructions on how to make bias binding. What I found was this video put out by Connecting Threads on how to make bias binding, but they don't take you much farther than cutting the strips, after that you just have to figure it out. I'm linking the video for you but I'll write the instructions and post pictures as well so you know what I'm talking about. Today I have successfully created and finished two potholders with BIAS BINDING! I'm so proud of myself. It's ok to be fearful of bias bindings, I don't know any quilter who just loves sewing on the bias. For newer quilters sewing on the bias is one of the biggest challenges if not the worst thing to give a new quilter as his/her first project. I use some pretty colorful language when I have to make half-square triangles from a bias edge and then see my square come out something other than square. So, here's my instructions on bias binding. I hope you have the courage to try it, it works and I know you'll be successful.

Bias Binding Video

First, measure each edge of the piece you want to bind. Mine was 10 inches on each side. Once you have your measurements, add them all together and then add an additional 10 inches. Once you have that, multiply by 2, then take the square root of the sum. So here's what my math looked like...

10+10+10+10+10=50x2=100 and the Square root of 100 is 10... that was too easy.

So whatever your end number is that's the amount of fabric you need in inches square. So for my 10x10 potholder I needed to cut a 10x10 square from my binding fabric.

Once you have your square cut, fold one corner down so that you have a 45 degree angle, the video shows this really well because on a 10x10 square, you just fold one corner to the opposite corner. Once you fold your corner down, put one of your rulers on the folded edge, you're going to trim the folded edge off, just a sliver of fabric not a huge chunk. You have now exposed the bias... yaay! So gently separate your two triangles and you'll place them so the bias edges are facing away from you when they are right side up, sitting next to each other. You'll want to flip one over top of the other and sew the edge together and what you'll end up with is a trapezoid. Pretty cool huh?

Once you've sewn your trapezoid together you'll then line your ruler up so that you will cut 2 inches off the bias edge. Continue until you've cut all the 2in strips that you need. Once you have all your strips cut out, take 2 of them and put them right sides together at a 90 degree angle and sew a 1/4 inch in from the cut angle. When placing the right sides together, make sure the points come off either side by a 1/4 inch. This will ensure your strips end up even. Once you've sewn all your strips together press the seams open, take care not to tug or wiggle your iron on the fabric, it's on the bias edge now so it super stretchy and will warp easily. After you've pressed your seams open, fold your binding in half to make a 1 inch folded binding. Again, take care not to tug on the fabric, you'll be able to feel the give in the fabric when you're folding it over. After that, take it to your project and start sewing on the binding with raw edges facing away from the project. When you get to those rounded corners, just take it slow and manipulate the binding around the edge. It may look like you're getting puckers in the seam but I promise you aren't. Once you finish machining the binding, fold it over to the other side and stitch down; either by hand or machine.