Cutting Bias Binding - LEFT-Handed -

Last night I said that -

I asked my bloggy buddy - Gene - if he minded if I showed you how to cut bias binding "his way" - LEFT-Handed - and he graciously said that I could - so I'll show you how I did that tomorrow - ;))

And today is "tomorrow" - so here goes - ;))

This piece is a 1/2 yard cut but you can use a larger piece if you want/need to -

Lay it out WRONG-side UP - with the selvage on the RIGHT -
Trim off the selvage edge before you start -
Or you'll have a bit of selvage on all of your strips -
Trim it now or trim it later - easier to do it now -

Take the TOP RIGHT corner and fold it DOWN to the BOTTOM LEFT - like so -
The DIAGONAL fold is now on the BIAS -

Then take the BOTTOM RIGHT corner and fold it UP to the TOP LEFT - like so -
Again - the DIAGONAL fold is on the BIAS -

Take the corner on the RIGHT and fold it UP to the TOP LEFT again - like so -
Making sure that all of your folds are nice and neat -

Then carefully turn the whole piece to the RIGHT to straighten it out a bit -
And line it up with a horizontal line on your cutting mat -
With just "a little" hanging over one of the vertical lines - like so -
Because you want to be able to cut OFF the folds -

Like Gene said - you want enough hanging over so that you cut off ALL of the folds the first time and don't have to cut it again -

So line up your ruler with the vertical line that you chose -
And trim off those folds -

Move the ruler over to the LEFT to whatever size you want to cut your strips -
And cut however many you think you need -
I cut five or six - I don't remember -

Then - unfold the strips -

And you'll see that the ends match up nicely -
So - stitch them together - using a 1/4" seam allowance -

And press the seams to one side - or open if you prefer -

Some of the strips will have the cut going the "other" way -
So pay attention -

Or they won't match - ;))

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -