Best Press and Making Bias Tape: Part 2
Holy Cow!!! How did I ever live without freakin Best Press?!? My mother's friend was making a run to the fabric store for some fabric and wanted to know if mom and me wanted to tag along. Naturally we said yes. She is making an awesome looking steampunk skirt and wanted our opinion on fabrics. I had made myself a small list and tried my best to stick to said list, which I did, oddly enough. Anywho, on said list was Best Press. I saw it on Nancy Zieman's website and was curious about it. She claims its awesome, so of course I wanted to try it. Also on my list was a remnant of plain ol white cotton fabric so I could attempt to make more bias tape. My first attempt at making my own bias tape was kind of crappy, but I was using a stretchy fabric that was not cut on the grain. It would not hold the shape to save its life. So this time, for my body suit, I wanted to make it again but with plain fabric. I also read some of the reviews on the Best Press and a lot of women (or men, I'm not sure. haha) said that it is great for making bias tape. Woop!
So I get my fabric home and hand wash it because we had just done laundry and I didn't want to wait until the following weekend to try Bias Tape 2.0. After a good hand washing, I tossed it in the dryer with the turquoise green stretchy lace remnant I had also bought and hand washed. Once It was dry-ish, I sprayed on some of the Best Press and began to dry iron. I'm not sure if you're supposed to use steam with it, but it worked wonders being dry ironed! The fabric was slightly starched so it had some body to it which made not only cutting a breeze, but also sewing and bias tape making seemed easier as well. The white fabric was a yard even, but it was slightly cut funky, so I cut it into 4 pieces and squared one of the quarters. Then I watched a nifty video on making bias strips and folded my 1/4 of a yard accordingly and began to cut. How many bias stripe can you make with 1/4 of a yard, you might ask? An ass ton, that's how much. I made enough for this body suit and all its friends and I still have 3/4ths of a yard left!
I actually had set aside Sunday time for making bias tape, thinking it would take all day, but it took no time at all. And I stopped myself after a quarter of a yard because there was already so much made. I'm not sure if I will be using the rest of this remnant for any more bias tape, but it is so freakin good to know that it does not take a lot of fabric to make your own bias tape to match anything!! I have so many remnants that I do not know what to use them for and now I might just make them all into freakin bias tape. I am so excited! I never have good luck with arm holes or necklines. I always just fold them under and stitch them down, but now they can look so much more professional. I also think I shall be trying the 'stitch down one side, fold and stitch in the ditch' method when I apply this to my body suit. The one other time I used bias tape, I just encased the hem and sewed in one step. It didn't go extremely well, but that was also with the black stretchy bias tape I made, which would not hold its shape. This white bias might actually work in one step since its so crisp and behaves itself properly. So yeah, my eyes have been opened to the possibilities of bias binding and Best Press! Happy sewing, indeed. :-D
**There are different scents of Best Press, but I bought the unscented one. And my silly ass was in the store and should have smelled the scents but I did not. That's ok; I feel the need to go back and buy a remnant of plain ol black cotton to make proper black bias binding. It can go with so many things. While I am there, I shall smell the other scents. :)
So I get my fabric home and hand wash it because we had just done laundry and I didn't want to wait until the following weekend to try Bias Tape 2.0. After a good hand washing, I tossed it in the dryer with the turquoise green stretchy lace remnant I had also bought and hand washed. Once It was dry-ish, I sprayed on some of the Best Press and began to dry iron. I'm not sure if you're supposed to use steam with it, but it worked wonders being dry ironed! The fabric was slightly starched so it had some body to it which made not only cutting a breeze, but also sewing and bias tape making seemed easier as well. The white fabric was a yard even, but it was slightly cut funky, so I cut it into 4 pieces and squared one of the quarters. Then I watched a nifty video on making bias strips and folded my 1/4 of a yard accordingly and began to cut. How many bias stripe can you make with 1/4 of a yard, you might ask? An ass ton, that's how much. I made enough for this body suit and all its friends and I still have 3/4ths of a yard left!
I actually had set aside Sunday time for making bias tape, thinking it would take all day, but it took no time at all. And I stopped myself after a quarter of a yard because there was already so much made. I'm not sure if I will be using the rest of this remnant for any more bias tape, but it is so freakin good to know that it does not take a lot of fabric to make your own bias tape to match anything!! I have so many remnants that I do not know what to use them for and now I might just make them all into freakin bias tape. I am so excited! I never have good luck with arm holes or necklines. I always just fold them under and stitch them down, but now they can look so much more professional. I also think I shall be trying the 'stitch down one side, fold and stitch in the ditch' method when I apply this to my body suit. The one other time I used bias tape, I just encased the hem and sewed in one step. It didn't go extremely well, but that was also with the black stretchy bias tape I made, which would not hold its shape. This white bias might actually work in one step since its so crisp and behaves itself properly. So yeah, my eyes have been opened to the possibilities of bias binding and Best Press! Happy sewing, indeed. :-D
**There are different scents of Best Press, but I bought the unscented one. And my silly ass was in the store and should have smelled the scents but I did not. That's ok; I feel the need to go back and buy a remnant of plain ol black cotton to make proper black bias binding. It can go with so many things. While I am there, I shall smell the other scents. :)
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