Instructions for Cutting Continuous Fabric Bias Tape

Fabric bias tape is useful for seaming the hems of skirts and armholes in blouses, and also for finishing the edge of handmade quilts. Bias tape can be purchased, but only in the most basic of colors. Handmade bias tape can be made by cutting strips of fabric on the bias to match the garment sewn. But for larger projects, like quilts, bias tape can either be made by sewing together numerous strips of bias, or by making one long continuous strip of bias tape at once.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Cotton fabric
• Transparent 45-degree ruler
• Marking pencil
• Scissors
• Sewing machine
• Iron

1. Lay out 1/2 yard of fabric on a table with the selvage edges to the right and left sides. Cut off the selvages. Grasp the lower right hand corner of the fabric, and bring it up over the fabric until it reaches the top edge, creating a triangle with the two edges lining up smoothly at the top.

2. Hold the two fabric layers firmly so that they don't shift. Use your scissors to cut along the fold you have created on the right half of the triangle. Unfold the fabric back to where it originally was placed. You now will have a rectangle with a diagonal slice through it, ending in the upper right corner.

3. Pick up the triangle that you have created and move it to the left half of the original fabric rectangle, without turning its position. Lay it down, butting the two vertical ends together. You should now have both selvage edges touching. Use the sewing machine to sew these two edges together, using a 1/4 inch seam. Press this seam open.

4. Lay out your fabric with the wrong side showing and the seam side up. Use the 45 degree ruler to determine where the 45 degree bias angle line is. Begin marking lines with the ruler and pencil to show where a 45 degree angle is on the fabric. Begin at 2 inches from the right-hand edge, and make the first mark the width of the fabric, from top to bottom. Move the ruler 2 inches to the left and mark another bias line from top to bottom. Continue this until you have the fabric covered in lines, all 2 inches apart. If your final space does not measure 2 inches, cut the extra fabric off.

5. Mark the top edge of each pencil line consecutively, beginning with the right edge as 0, the next line as 1, and so on. Mark the bottom edge similarly, only start the right edge as 1, the next one as 2, and so on. Pick up the fabric and fold it in half, top to bottom, with right sides together. Slide the fabric slightly to match up the 1s and the 2s and so on, until the entire seam is matched up. Pin very thoroughly to hold in place. This will result in a twisted, odd looking tube.

6. Sew the seam that you have pinned, using a 1/4 inch seam. Be very careful that the rest of the fabric does not get caught up in this seam, as it is very easy for this to happen. Remove the pins. You will now have a tube with a tail sticking out of the top and the bottom, with pencil lines running around the outside.

7. Cut along the pencil line, beginning at either tail end. You will be cutting around the tube in a spiral until you reach the end of the tube. When you have finished cutting the tube, you are finished and have a pile of continuous bias strip.

Tips & Warnings

• Vary the width of your bias strip depending on the look you want to achieve in your quilt.
• This project can't be done with needle and thread. The seams must be sewn on a sewing machine, as they lock and have the ability to be cut without unraveling.

References

• How to make bias tape directions and diagrams