Tutorial- Perfect Machine Bias Binding with Mitred Corners

Whew- this tutorial is a mouth full!

I’m covering two hated things here- bias binding and it’s fancy little square corners. This is how to make something like this:

See it’s beautiful corners and the way it’s great on either side? Yeah, if you want to know how to do it, walk this way….

 

 

First zig zag around the edge of where you want to apply the binding. This stops the edges from fraying and everything moving about. It means less pins when you sew the binding, and binding always has far too many pins anyway.

 

 

This is very important. Apply the binding to the WRONG SIDE of the garment. This was a bad example because it’s a cuff lined with the same fabric, but this is the back of it.

Again- Apply it to the WRONG SIDE.

 

Right, here’s the mitred corner part. When you get to a corner stop at your seam allowance from the edge (in this case 1cm, the width of the final bias). Then fold it like this, and sew again, starting 1cm from the edge so you don’t sew over the top of the other stitching.

 

When you get back around to the beginning fold the end over and just pin over the top.

 

 

Now flip it over, and you will be greeted with these beautiful corners! Ravishing!

The other side (Which will be the RIGHT SIDE of the fabric, and the side you’ll show the world) will look like this. When sewing the binding on you want to make sure you pick a thread that matches the main fabric, not the colour of the bias, or it’s possible that this will show up and look bad. And looking bad is not what we want here.

 

 

 

Fold and pin into place. You want the edge to just hit the line of stitching. Keeping it aligned with that is VERY IMPORTANT and is what makes this technique work.

 

Damn, we’ve hit those pesky corners.

 

 

No worries! Just pin either side like this…

 

 

Fold into the inside of the corner…

 

 

And pin flat for that beauty!

 

…I get far too excited over these things.

 

 

Now take the fully pinned item to your machine. You cannot have enough pins in bias binding, seriously. If in doubt, pin it more.

This will be your right side, so you’re sewing the side people will see the most.

Now sew it with a decent seam allowance at the edge, so around 2-3mm. This ensures that you catch the bias on the bottom. You can either follow the line on the inside, or even better, follow the seam allowance on the edge. This may mean you get wonky lines from the inside of the work, but makes better results on the other side.

 

Then voilà! Lovely binding on the front of your item. But what’s even better, is that when you turn it to the back…

 

 

Yep, still dashing! Perfect for when you might have both sides of something seen.