28.10.10

Narrow Bindings

I have been toiling away at my machine, sewing up ballet costumes for a local concert.  At the moment I am working on 14 caterpillar costumes.  Whilst the sewing itself gets tedious, I enjoy the process of working out my patterns and construction methods for maximum efficiency and minimum number of fittings.

These caterpillars are all wearing green satin bolero vests.  The fabric is heavyweight and frays terribly.  The boeros are for 6 yo girls.  This is the neatest method I came up with to bind the edges of the boleros, which have some rather tight corners.

Step 1  - Keep the bias binding folded.  Lay the binding with the folds facing upward on the right side of the bolero, matching the raw edge of the bolero with one folded edge of the binding.  Stitch down the centre of the binding.

Step 2 - Trim away the seam allowances (my seam allowances were 6 mm).  It is okay to trim off some of the binding.

Step 3 - Fold the binding, and about 1 mm of bolero fabric to the inside of the bolero and stitch along the folded edge of the binding.

This is what it looks like from the inside.

This is how it looks on the outside.


 This is the completed bolero.  Not perfect, but as neat as I can get it.
  

11 comments:

gwensews said...

That's a great tecnique and would look great on a t-shirt. Very nice.

Bernice said...

Very clever! How snazzy!

Auset's Stitched Treasures said...

I agree with Gwensews. This is a great idea. I must try this on a blouse I'm working on.
Angela

Mary Nanna said...

How lovely of you to do all that sewing for others! Very generous. I'm glad you are finding something satisfying and interesting for yourself in this project, and even better, something useful for us too!

Catherine said...

Oh my gosh I wish I would have known this technique a few days ago when I was working on a baby bib, which also has tight corners. Oh well, next time! Thanks for sharing.

Kat said...

What a clever idea. Good on you for jumping in and volunteering to make these. I can't wait till I have kids and I can help sew stuff for this school plays and things.

Gail said...

Dedication and generosity - I bet it will a long time before you make anything green again.

kbenco said...

Very neat. These are beautifully sewn costumes. Noble woman. I admit to excessive overlocker use for costumes.

Carolyn said...

This is a great technique, one I'm filing away for future use... Thankyou so much for taking the time to take a few photos to illustrate!

jessica said...

I agree, what a great idea and thanks for sharing it! I'm pretty sure this well make plenty of appearances in my clothing from now on ...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing. It is so helpful to see tutorials on blogs!