How To Make A Bias Trimming/Tape

Hello all! and Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers 

out there! 

Now I was working on a particular piece recently and thought to 

save snippets of my work, and make mini-tutorials as I go along. I 

work with bias all the time i.e i cut fabrics on the bias to create 

certain silhouettes, i make bias trimmings/tapes with different 

fabrics as against buying (custom bias tapes add a certain sense of 

uniqueness to an outfit as you can make use of any colour and type 

of fabric you are working with :-) 

Anyways, to the business of the day! I'll first introduce what a bias

trimming is before making it with you. A bias trimming is a narrow

 strip of fabric, cut on the bias of a fabric, although I illustrated this

 in the ankara bangle series, I would illustrate it again here.The bias 

is found at 45 degrees to the straight grain of the fabric, and is also

 called the 'cross grain'.  

more on the other side...

spread out your fabric

see the selvage at the top? I placed a tape measure along the straight grain of the fabric... 

 here the tape measure is along the bias for easy illustration...


follow this 'path' and cut through with your scissors. This is your bias strip. Now iron parallel folds at both sides like this:

 this is what it looks like on the reverse side

I made another with Daviva fabric., to show that there are no limits to what fabrics to use for our bias strips/trimmings!

 and side by side......

TIPS:

1. you can sew  plaid bias strips on ankara either to finish off edges or as a trimming for that afro-contemporary look.

                        2. you can use your bias strips to make piping, binding seams, finish off edges, and so on

3. you can use your bias strips to trim armholes, necklines (take a cue from buba blouses), baby bibs, ties and loops, trim placemats and head rests, the list is endless!....

that's all folks!

xoxo, Onnari.

do remember to follow on twitter @thatssewnaija