How To Make Binding on the Bias

One of my favorite quilting things is binding a quilt with a stripe, a check or a plaid on the bias. It gives a quilt a wonderful diagonal look to the edging and a sense of movement. But creating a bias binding has a few tricks to it, so I thought I would share how I make it, pictorially.

This a fun, wavy plaid in shades of blue that I am going to use on Flying in Formation.

The first step is to match the salvages and square the fabric. Use a clear ruler with a grid to line up the fold opposite the salvage and cut a 90° angle.

Then cut off one salvage edge. Be careful to cut evenly! You will be matching this edge with the last edge to get a 45° angle.

Fold the salvage up to meet the first cut you made. This will create a 45° angle in the fabric. At this point, ironing becomes very important! Iron the fabric using plenty of steam. Make sure you get a good crease.

Now taking the ruler again, cut off the fold that you created in the last step.










Spread out the fabric so that the diagonal cut in the center is side by side.

Take the piece of fabric on one side (here I have the taken the piece on the right and moved it across the left piece and match up the vertical / perpendicular sides.

Pin these two edges with right sides together.

Sew the line removing the pins as you go. Press the seam to one side. On the right side of the fabric, draw lines that are apart the width of the binding that you want. CAREFUL! Make sure that you draw the lines on the diagonal of the pattern -- diagonally to the seam you just made. If you draw the lines perpendicular with the seam then you will end up with regular binding, but went the long way around to get there!

 On one end of the lines, write the numbers beginning with "1". . .

and on the other end of the lines, write the numbers beginning with "2".








Then join the two sides to form a tube matching up the numbers.

Your "tube" will be off set by one number. If you start cutting here along the line, as you go around the tube you will find yourself cutting one long continuous line of binding.

Just keep cutting until you get to the end, or until you reach the skinny piece on the end.

Iron the binding in half length-wise and attach to the quilt.

Don't know how to attach it to a quilt? Stay tuned and Happy Binding!