• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary

Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary

fuel that adventure

  • Home
  • The Food
    • All Manner of Sweet Things
      • Cake
      • Chocolate
      • Cookies
      • Ice Cream
      • Squares
      • Everything Else
    • Veggie
      • Salad
      • Vegetarian
      • Vegan
    • Carbohydrates
      • Bread
      • Pasta
      • Potato
      • Gluten Free
      • Rice
      • Pastry
    • Soup
    • Hoof & Feather
      • Beef
      • Chicken
      • Lamb
      • Pork
    • Fin & Shell
    • Breakfast
  • The Adventures
    • Shetland
      • Hike Shetland
    • Belgium
    • England
    • France
    • Italy
    • Latvia
    • Norway
    • Scotland
    • Spain
    • The Caribbean
    • USA
  • About Me
  • As Seen
  • PR & Disclosure
  • Contact Me

How to Make Straight Grain Binding

Published on December 8, 2012 • Last updated July 18, 2014 by Elizabeth Atia
straight-grain-binding

When I first started crafting I thought that binding was something you had to buy. It wasn’t until a few years ago when I got back into quilting that I found out you can make your own! It was more cost, for me, and the limited colours and availabilty here in Shetland for shop bought bindings that prompted me to make my own. There are many different ways of going about doing this, some more complicated that others, but I’m a ‘path of least resistance’ kind of gal, and so this is what I do.

I usually use recycled fabrics in my creations (our local charity shop is a treasure trove of inexpensive clothing in incredible ranges of colours and patterns) and so I need to cut off any embellishments, elastics, etc so that there is a flat piece of fabric. Iron flat.

Using a pen and ruler I mark the width of the binding strips on the back of the fabric. To get the size double the width you want your binding to be and add 1/2 inch. I wanted a 1/2 inch binding for a project I’m currently working on so I drew marks at 1 1/2 inches apart (1/2 inch for each side plus 1/4 inch each side for the hem).  Draw lines between each mark to make cutting straight lines easier.

Cut out your strips of fabric. It doesn’t matter if you’ve only got a short piece of fabric as you’ll be sewing the strips together. Leave a 1/4 inch seam when sewing each strip together (remember right sides together!). Iron the seam open flat.

When you’ve got a long length of fabric iron 1/4 inch over on each side. Then, go back to the beginning and iron the entire thing in half, lengthwise. There you go, one length of homemade, recycled straight seam binding!

If you want bias binding cut your strips at a 45 degree angle to the grain.

straight-binding
Category: Craft

About Elizabeth Atia

Daydream adventurer. Expat Canadian. Foodie. Calls Shetland home.

Previous Post: « Fruit Pizza
Next Post: Sjokoladekuler (Chocolate Balls) »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. kate andrews

    November 23, 2014 at 9:17 pm

    This is great and very informative, I didn’t realise it would be so easy

    Reply
  2. Debbie Skerten

    November 8, 2014 at 1:36 pm

    Beautifullly written. So easy to understand. Thank you x

    Reply
  3. Heather Haigh

    October 31, 2014 at 2:25 am

    Hurray for a method I can understand!

    Reply
  4. Kat Tew

    July 9, 2014 at 10:19 pm

    I found this works really well for most “home” sewing projects.

    Reply
  5. Clayman

    January 4, 2014 at 7:01 am

    I will try this!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Sidebar

About Elizabeth

Adventurer. Expat Canadian. Foodie. Loves bikes. Calls Shetland home. Read More…

Inspiration

“Every day is another chance to get stronger, to eat better, to live healthier, and to be the best version of you.”

Recent Posts

Image of a stainless steel camping bowl filled with chorizo chowder. There are a few slices of toasted focaccia on the side with gorgeous black grill lines.
Image of The Face of Neeans with its very steep cliffs.

Copyright © 2011–2022 Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary Ltd · Privacy Policy · All Rights Reserved · Website by Callia Web

Company Number: SC643807 · Registered Business Address: 42 Carden Place, Aberdeen, AB10 1UP