I was so excited about getting this finished! And I was surfing the net for tricks on calculating yardage for bias bindings. I found a great one: Inches needed x width of the strip. Take the square root of that answer and add 2". That gives you the size of square to start with for making the bias.
Lesson#1: Do not do math when not feeling well and/or have multiple distractions. Food Poisoning. House Guest. Girls Friends Hanging Out Here.
Lesson #2: Do not try to combine multiple sets of directions for cutting continuous bias binding. Particularly in light of Lesson #1. Sure, it seems obvious now that it takes 4 -15" squares to equal 1 -30" square.
Lesson #3: If the strip seems wider than it needs to be, it probably is. I was so obsessed with getting the right length that I allowed 2.5" to get stuck in my head, when I know that I always cut 1.5-1.75 for a 1/4" binding.
So...the binding making process took twice as long as it should have. My binding has more seams in it than necessary. I only had to resew the seam that makes the continuous binding tube twice to get the cutting lines right. I tried sewing the binding so there was 1/4" showing on the front and 1/2" on the back, but that made the edge cup. I pull out out 20" of hand-stitching and tucked under the extra 1/4".
With any luck, before the day is out I'll be to the next nail-biter step. Time to wash it. I am terrified that the batik is going to bleed all over the white since they weren't pre-washed. My plan is a cold water wash with Color Catchers to see how it goes. It's pretty grubby-dirty from being dragged around for 16 months. And there's a few splashes of coffee...and some faint shadowing from where I had to use Wine Away after the Great Shiraz Debacle. I'm hoping that all that will come out (even if I have to wash it twice) and that the hot drier will both set the color and give me that 3% shrinkage of the cotton batting that I've been counting on for great texture. Next post will either be victory pictures or lots of tears.
4 comments:
I await the outcome with baited breath. Fingers crossed for you.
Deborah
May color catchers do the trick....fingers crossed for you, Marjorie. =)
Either I've been incredibly lucky or something, but fortunately there has been no dye bleeding on any projects I've done (so far).
Pity you seem to have had such a battle with the binding, but it's done now and will soon be time to move on project wise.
The battle with the binding was just to make you feel happier when it was all done. Good luck with the wash!No tears please.
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