Welcome to a new series here on the Moda Bake Shop! Instruction Sheets are printable pages that you will want to keep handy in your sewing room. Each one has simple and clear instructions for some basic sewing techniques. Today we are sharing how to make something every sewist will need at some point - continuous bias binding.

Quilt binding is typically cut on the straight grain of the fabric. In contrast, bias binding is cut on the bias, which gives the fabric more stretch. This stretch makes bias binding ideal for binding curves or for use on other items that need to move -  like clothing.

One fat quarter of fabric makes approximately 5 yards of bias binding. The length of the binding varies depending on how wide your strips are cut.

• 1 Fat Quarter
• Starch
• Rotary cutter
• Pencil or other  non-heat sensitive marking pen
• Ruler or straight edge
• Scissors

Lightly starch and press fat quarter to remove any wrinkles. Cut off the selvedge and trim fat quarter to 18"x 22".

Fold the top right corner of the fat quarter down to match the bottom edge, creating a 45 degree fold. Press along the fold. Unfold the fat quarter and use a rotary cutter to cut along the pressed line.

Move the cut triangle to the other end of the fat quarter, right sides together, as shown. Sew along the overlapping edge using a shortened stitch.

Press the seam open. The resulting shape is a parallelogram. Use a ruler and a pencil to mark binding widths across the fabric.

Create a tube out of the fabric by matching and pinning the marked lines at the top and bottom. Offset the first line so it matches the second one at the top. Continue pinning at each pencil mark until you reach the end. The tube you are creating will appear crooked but as you get the full seam pinned and sewn, it will straighten out.

Sew a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge. Remove the pins and press the seam open.

Use your scissors to cut along the pencil line. The binding will unravel into a long strip as you go. Take extra care that you keep the layers separate and don't cut through both layers at once.

One fat quarter can make up to 5 yards of continuous bias binding.

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