Guest post: Sewing on the perfect binding

Hi, I’m Yvette, 28 years old and I own a fabric store in Almere (The Netherlands). I’m married with Peter for about 2,5 years now. Together we have three kids Fleur (8), Fenne (7) and Floran (2). They are my pride and joy. I sew for all three of them and for myself, although most of the time I forget myself and just sew for the kids.

I was looking for a nice recent picture together with all the kids, this was the only one I could find.

From Left to right Me, Floran, Fleur and Fenne. They opened my store at the beginning of October.

So that’s me and my family. I know Sofilantjes from Facebook and got to know Anne through testing her patterns for her. I tested the Brueram dress. You can see just a bit of the dress on the left side of the picture above. Everyone who comes in the store is so impressed by the back of the dress. The last pattern I tested for Anne was the ADVTee for my son Floran. You can see him wearing it on the picture below:

Floran in his ADVTee. That already is to small now. For my tutorial on sewing knit binding I used the ADVTee.

I love sewing with knit fabrics and bindings. It’s quick and gives a good result. I also use knit binding on the bottom of shirts when they look to short. I love binding/waist bands on the bottom of shirts because it keeps the shirt down.

You can make a knit binding out of a rib knit or stretch jersey with good recovery. I normally create binding from jersey/knit fabrics in the same or a matching fabric as the main fabric. The spandex in jersey fabrics is what makes sure the binding will recover to its original form.

Arm binding used. For this shirt I used a waistband, arm cuffs and neckline binding.

I usually cut a binding that is approximately 80% of the length that I measured on the pattern. The width of my binding depends on where I’m going to use the binding. I like a binding of about 5 cm wide for the armhole (so I cut 10 cm excl. seam allowance of height and the width I need), for necklines I always use a smaller binding, I like it to be around 2/2.5 cm (cut a height of approximately 5 cm excl. seam allowance). Once I’ve cut the binding I start sewing the pieces together. I use a serger, but you can also use a zigzag stitch on your sewing machine.

For the arm cuffs I sew the short sides together, fold it over right sides out and sew the cuffs to the bottom of the sleeve. The waist and neckbinding the process is almost the same. I always pin my neck and waistband to the main fabric every quarter for equal distribution.

I use wonderclips to equally distribute the binding. On these pictures the neckbinding is sewn on already.

Make sure you stretch the binding and not the main fabric , stretching the main fabric can make the binding wavy. Gently pull the binding when sewing. After sewing a few shirts or dresses with binding it will become easy.For a professional finish topstitch the binding.

The end result of the shirt used in this bplogpost. The ADVTee size 4.

Thank you Anne for designing such a great pattern. We love it!

Love

Yvette

Thank you for this tutorial Yvette!

If you would like to see what else we will talk about here is our schedule:

October 7: Understitching – Adventures with Bubba and Bug
October 19: How to add pockets to a dress – Heartmade by Suzy

November 2: How to adjust to skinny or plus size – Boutique Birdie
November 16: Shirring – Shani Sews

December 7: How to mash up patterns – Tales of a Tester
December 21: Sewing with knits – Shani Sews

Januari 8: Sewing on the perfect binding – Droomstoffen
Januari 14: How to make your on bias tape – Boevenbende

Febuari 1: French seams – Winingwife
Feburari 14: Handstitching the right way – Sprouting Jube Jube

March 7: How to alter a pattern – Deka Wear

Now, lets sew some binding! Enter the giveaway below!

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