There were two things that intimidated me to death when I first starting sewing: bias & zippers.

Bias: I’d heard the term when someone would describe why a skirt flowed so nicely and flattered so well. They’d say That’s because it’s cut on the bias. Aaahhh, of course…on the bias. What the heck does that mean?

If you want to take your DIY sewing projects to the next level in finish and design, you really do need to know about bias. With bias, you can create beautiful trimmed edges and *corded* edges, which is what we’ll do on the shams we’ll create. Yes, you can buy some beautiful premade corded trims out there. But it’s not always easy to find the exact color you need, and they can be very pricey. By creating custom bias trim yourself, you can really create that ‘pulled together’ look we all love.

Here are a couple illlustrations that show the basic anatomy of a bolt of fabric and how bias lays out on it. 

To get started, we’ll need a piece of fabric to cut up into strips which we’ll join together end-to-end to cover our cording. The amount of fabric to cut up depends on 1) the size of your finished pillows and 2) the size of the cording you’re covering. Here we’re making (3) 26″ pillows, and the cording is chunky, 3/4″ diameter, so we’ll be cutting 3″ strips to cover it. I’ll need approximately 30″ of 54″ wide fabric for the cording.

I’m sure there’s a mathematical equation to figure out exctly how much fabric you’ll need base upon the total linear feet you’ll use, and the size of the cording you’re covering. If that equation exists, I’m sure I wouldn’t understand it myself, let alone be able to explain it in terms everyone else could understand. As with everything else in learning, trial and error is the best teacher.

First thing we’ll do it cut a 30″ piece of the fabric we’ll use for the cording. We’re aiming for nice square edges here. Accuracy counts in sewing, unfortunately.

Now we’ll cut along our nice straight gridded board lines and get a 30″ swath of fabric. We’re removing the selvages here too. (below)

Next begins the series of origami-like folding that will result in nice bias cut strips (below). For this first step, it’s not necessary to align on to cutting board’s grid. You’re going to fold and turn coming up.

This is sort of like the magician who starts his trick by telling you to watch his hands closely. The lower right corner starts the folding here (below).

Keep pulling the corner up diagonally up to the left until it begins to align with the top edge. It’ll happen, you’ll see (below).

Now we’re going to turn the whole piece so that the 45 degree edge (above) is aligned on the vertical lines of your board (below).

Now we’re going to tidy everything up a bit and align it on your board’s gridded line (below).

Finally, we can start cutting (below)

This is what you’ll end up –  now the fun can start! (below)

Coming up next — Joining Your Bias Strips and Covering Cording!