It’s the annual mad rush to clean out the freezer to make room for the beef quarter coming next week.  So that means pulling out all the chicken carcasses, the chuck steaks and the beef bones I’ve been saving to can some soup and stew.  I spent all day yesterday roasting soup bones and the steaks and making the stock.  Today I chopped and prepped and jarred up the stew.

Of course yesterday I nicked the top of my index finger with the knife while cutting up the steaks.  It hurts because it’s right at the tip of my finger.  Now, you might be asking what does this have to do with sewing or smocking.  Well, the cut is on my left finger….and that is my stitching hand.  That little cut put me out of commission all weekend for any kind of stitching.  Very annoying!  You  see, even though I’m left handed, I cut with my right hand…a little quirk that lefties usually demonstrate trying to adjust in a rightie dominated world.

Since I can’t sew anything to blog about, I thought I would give a quick tutorial on working with bias strips to make piping.  Specifically, how to stitch gingham or plaid bias strips together seamlessly.

Sometimes you want to make a long piece of piping or bias trim, but the size of the fabric you have won’t allow you to cut such a long enough strip on the bias.  The solution is to cut several bias strips and match the plaids when you stitch them together.  I am working on a new doll dress pattern called the Red Checked Picnic Dress.  It’s a version of the dress I made for the Doll’s Day Out fundraiser I talked about here.  I’m still tweaking the pattern but I can show you the bias process.  The width of the fabric that I had leftover for bias strips wasn’t wide enough to make one seamless strip for the belt.

The first step is to plan where the seams will be placed.  I didn’t want a seam right in the middle on the front of the dress so I pieced 3 strips together.  This pushes the seams over to the sides making it less noticeable.

I chose 3 strips and made sure the design was going in the right direction.  This was a woven check, so the right and wrong sides look the same.

Then I slid one strip over the other until the two blended in.  It looked like one continuous strip.  If this is a plaid, make sure all the lines and colors are in the proper order along the whole length.  If you look closely you can see the selvage edge on the top strip.  Other than that the two blend together.

Without lifting the bias from the table, fold the end of the top strip under along one of the lines in the check or plaid. Finger press to make a crease.  Place it back over the other strip and adjust the pattern to blend in.

Hold the seam allowance underneath the top strip with a pin to  keep them from shifting and lift up the top bias up so that it’s perpendicular to the one underneath. Use the triangular piece sticking out to hold with the pin.  

Insert the pin along the crease to hold in place.  Check the pin placement on both sides to make sure it’s going into and coming out of the fabric along the correct line. 

Stitch together along the crease and you are done!