How to Make Continuous Bias Quilt Binding

hi I'm Beth Hayes editor-in-chief of McCall's quilting today I'd like to show you how to make continuous bias as quilters we generally make bias to bind our quilts but bias actually can be used for other things in the home deck field even apparel but today we're thinking about making bias for our quilt edge so let's get started here I have a square of fabric and it must be square size isn't even that important for the purpose of this demonstration a smaller square you get less bias obviously a larger square more please make sure it's square I've made a mistake myself let's pretend this is 20 inch and 21 that inch or that direction it won't work it has to be square first things first take a permanent marker and just mark a little one on this seam one on this side then we're going to go up here mark a little too this is just marking your seam seam one seam to do that in the seam line you can use a pencil permanent marker whatever you prefer I'm a big permanent marker fan fine point that is and now I'm going to reach over here and get my rotary cutter and the goal is to cut exactly from this corner to this corner if you're not comfortable butting up a couple rulers like I do because I guess I like to cheat and do everything fast you could take a yardstick draw a line and then cut with your scissors but I'm just going to butt up a couple of rulers because one isn't long enough to reach the whole way and take a cut from corner to corner pull them apart get the rulers out of the way now you're going to find out why we numbered each scene first we're going to stitch the number 1 seams together right sides together sew one side down and as soon as you start picking these up you can see it would be notice it would be very easy to get it mixed up that's why having this little key number one here number one here it's very helpful right sides together we're going to pin this and as a as it's always the case when you have triangles you're going to have a little dog ear on each side just offset them so they're evenly positioned I think you can see what I'm doing now we're going to pin this and then go to the Machine and so the first scene this is also straight of grain so you don't have to worry you're not sewing a bias seen here so I'll just add maybe three four or five pins just enough to keep it secure and these little corners nice and nice and even now for the purpose of this video let's pretend I've gone to the Machine I've stitched the seam and voila here is this these were our number one seems came back pressed it open press open very important that's one of the keys now you are already seeing what I have done in preparation for you I have actually drawn the lines which are going to be the width of our bias but I'm going to demonstrate to you again with a ruler how you are going to draw your lines to get the width of bias that is your choice you could have two two inch two and a half inch two and a quarter inch happens to be my favorite with four double full binding so to draw this line again you'll need your 6 by 24 rotary ruler and using this straight edge on your fabric I'm going to bring it here and align it right to the two and a quarter line again with my fine point permanent marker I'm going to draw I'll have to shift this down and you can it you can see now the bigger your squared the more shifting you need to do with your ruler finish drawing the line now all the way across this parallelogram that's the shape we have right now bring the ruler up and align the two and a quarter because you're making two and a quarter inch bias along that line that you've just drawn again and just March on up your piece of fabric now when you get up to the top you're probably almost assuredly going to have some leftover fabric that will get tossed away and then there's a little a very little bit of waste of fabric when you make your continuous bias but it's it's nominal so now we have several strips of continuous bias marked here and the next step is what is sometimes confusing to people so let me show you what we're going to do we're bringing our seam two together see this aside - and this is side - now you can see why it really was important to put the little numbers in place now when we bring these together see how wonderful I hope you can see my lines I didn't make them too dark but they match up very nicely well don't get excited and so on those lines or you won't end up with a continuous strip I've done that too when you get too quick and careless and rushing what you the key here and this is a little bit tricky part you're going to offset the strip by one did you see what I did here it was lined up exact now I'm going to bring this strip these down one position and pin this seam and sew it this is what becomes a little bit awkward and to help now I'm bringing my pins over to help with your positioning you can see I needed a pencil up here I'll use my permanent marker make just the little hash mark where you're going to put a pin right in 1/4 1/4 inch because on each side of that position so that can be a pin placement here a pin where I made the little hash mark right sides together bring the pin up here so that will assure when the seam is sewn that your lines are going to match exactly yes the reason I wanted you to see me do this is so that you could get an idea of the bit of awkward awkward feeling you you get here with this scene and here is our offset just kind of hanging out there blowing in the wind and now we have to pin this entire scene and I'll put I will put a couple more pins than I might normally just because it does not lay real smoothly right now and so a few extra pins definitely keep your night uriah just nice and even under the presser foot as you're finishing this seam again this is going to be a quarter inch seam I'm finishing my pressing notice here we have just the tail hanging don't worry it looks wrong feels wrong what it isn't it's right now it's time to go to the Machine and stitch this seam number two now we're going to stitch this quarter inch seam as you can see the fabric it just looks like kind of a jumble so be be concerned about working to keep your raw edges even that's why you put a few extra pins in here okay here we go stitching our quarter inch seam don't stitch over your pins I know we all do it sometimes but it's not good policy here we come and as you move as you move along the seam just because this is a somewhat of an awkward situation you readjust there we go coming to a pin and it's and now we need a needle down because I want to readjust it one more time so that's flowing very smoothly under the presser foot okay we're almost finished last and I actually have to use my finger to get those raw edges even this isn't hard at all you just want to take a little bit of care to make sure it doesn't skew here we come down to the end and pull out and now I'm going to show you how to cut your bias now it's time to press this new number two seam that we just took I'm just going to fold this fabric out after that kind of jumble a mess we had notice all of a sudden it lays flat and what we'll need to do is go to the ironing board press this open just like we pressed open the first seam we did now I have another example here all done up already pressed to illustrate what this looks like in the end see we have our marked lines both seams pressed open kind of a crisscross sea looking thing and now we're ready to cut our continuous bias you're going to love this it's this whole this whole project is a little bit like a puzzle and I always have kind of fun making it so here we are cutting scissors I don't use a rotary for this I use a hand scissors and just follow follow the line and your I should put my hand inside here to give myself a little more support so that you can see it better in the camera just cut around and around and around following following those drawing lines you'll have to you'll have to move your fabric continuously as you go round this takes a couple minutes actually but it's fun now I'd like to tell you why it is that you may want to try to use continuous bias binding on your next quilt project I wouldn't think I don't think it's particularly important on a wall quilt or display quilt but let me tell you bias binding is much much stronger than straight of green so a quilt that will get a lot of use a bed quilt or a quilt that's going to be loved a lot will really benefit from bias binding it's much much stronger I have vintage quilts at home and believe it or not those that were found with bias are the bias binding is still there as as the little patchwork is starting to fray away pretty miraculous and also to be honest I find that a bias binding also lays a little bit just it lays a little bit nicer especially on a bed quilt coming over the edge of a bed so now you can imagine I have cut apart I've gone round round and round and look I've only taken two rows so far and look how much I have the last step which we will do is go to the ironing board fold our raw edges together and press I won't show you that pressing it's pretty obvious however I do want to show you the benefit of these seams that have been pressed open when you when you bring your raw edges together and press notice everything is offset so you don't get you don't get you chunks or nubs of a lot of fabric in there it all lays quite nice and flat well I hope on your next quilt you might try to use a bias binding made with this continuous bias technique you

Channel: McCall's Quilting

Views: 113,921

Rating: 4.78157 out of 5

Keywords: quilt, quilts, quilting, bias binding, quilt binding, quilting techniques, quilting tips, quilting tutorials, mccalls quilting, finishing a quilt

Id: EN6snRR76IQ

Length: 16min 3sec (963 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 28 2015