How to Sew a Bias Tape Finish

hello and welcome to Professor pincushion in this tutorial I'm going to show you how you can finish your raw edges using bias tape this could be helpful in areas like neck lines and arm holes let's go ahead and get started in order to do this finish of course we're going to need some bias tape now the bias tape I'm using for my demonstration is 1/2 inch with single folded bias tape so it's folded once on each side and this is the wrong side of the bias tape because it is cut on the bias it does have a little bit of stretch to it which makes it perfect for going around curved areas like necklines now you can buy a package of this at your local fabric store or you can also make your own bias tape so once I have my bias tape on one side you see it's folded on both sides but you're going to take one side and you're going to open it up and you're going to lightly press it we want it to stay open but we still want to see a crease here I've also already prepped the area that I'm going to be putting my bias tape so I'm going to be doing it on this neckline now especially important for necklines where you have a curved edge like this you want to do a stay stitch and you can see I've already done that with the dark thread right here so the stay stitch what it does it helps maintain the shape of the curved in the neckline so it doesn't get distorted later on when you're sewing and get overly stretched out it's also going to be helpful for me for when I place my bias tape on here because it's also going to give me some sort of a guideline that I can eyeball without having to use my tape measure to measure it so I placed my stay stitch 3/8 of an inch away from the raw edge of the neckline because that's what my seam allowance is for this particular pattern so whatever you have your seam line go ahead and make your stay stitch as well and it will come in handy later you're just going to do a regular stitch all along the area that you're going to put your bias tape your garment should be right-side out and I'm going to be starting at one of the seam lines so in this case I'm starting at a shoulder same place your bias tape so it's wrong side up and on one end you're going to fold over 1/2 inch this folded edge you're going to put right on the seam line but you want to make sure so we have the open edge that we folded out going towards the raw edge but your crease you can see my crease right here this is going to be placed right on my stay stitch so it needs to be placed on the seam line so I'm just going to start pinning it into place and I'm going to go all the way around the area and because this is curved you might instead of doing one huge chunk just do little pieces about an inch or so apart that way you can make sure that you're matching the curve of your neckline or your armhole or whatever you're doing when you get back to the beginning again go ahead and take your other end and overlap it by your starting point by a half inch or so using a regular straight stitch you're going to sew it your seam line which means that I'm going to be sewing right in the middle of that crease line attaching our by state to our garment next you're going to trim your seam allowance so that the edge of the garment fabric is flush with the top of your bias tape so they should just meet right up here at the top so you're not actually trimming the bias tape just the garment fabric then for any seams where you have a curve it's always a good idea to cut these little inverted notches because that's going to help when we turn our bias tape to the inside so our area will lie nice and flat just make sure that when you cut into your notches you're not actually cutting into the seam line therefore cutting into your stitches because we don't want to create a hole if you should accidentally cut that take your bias tape and turn it so it's on the inside of the garment so once you do this we're not going to be able to see the bias tape anymore it's all going to be on the other side and you're going to pin and press it into place once you've done this we're then going to take it to our machine and we're going to do a basting stitch right on the edge of the bias tape the basting stitch is going to be the longest stitch on your machine and you can see I'm going right along that edge now for this I would definitely recommend doing a con trusty thread because that will come in handy later where the bias tape overlaps I'm going to put in a couple of slip stitches right here just so this is no longer open I'm using a contrasting thread but you definitely want to use a matching thread for this part so you can see I'm starting on the top where the fold is and then I'm just going to grab a little bit of the bias tape underneath I'm not going through to the fabric on the other side just the bias tape and then I'm going to go back to the top fold so you really only need a couple of stitches for this because it is a very small area so now I'm on the top now I'm just going to grab a little bit of the bottom and that's it looking at the right side of the garment you're then going to take this back to the Machine and you're going to sew right next to your basting stitch and that is going to be our permanent stitch finishing the neckline this is a regular length straight stitch and you can see I'm doing it right next to my basting stitch instead of right on top of it so it'll make it easier to remove the basting stitch later and I'm doing it right above it after you finish your permanent stitches go ahead and check the inside of the garment we want to make sure that all our stitches are actually on the bias tape stitching it down to our garment and then you can go ahead remove your basting stitches and your raw edge has been finished new tutorials are released weekly so please subscribe to be notified at the next release make sure to check out our other videos and visit professorpincushion.com to view our complete library well over two 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Channel: Professor Pincushion

Views: 592,096

Rating: 4.9017482 out of 5

Keywords: armhole, bias, bias tape, finishes, hem, neckline, craft, how to sew, learn to sew, sew, sewing, pattern, patterns, homemade, handmade, Howto, Crafts, Diy, hand made, home made

Id: tpaaY9rth8c

Length: 6min 26sec (386 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 02 2014