Dress and belt in action!
Poor Edna. I was all set to tear her a new one here over the inscrutability of her diagram for this project — the beginner’s bias sash. It made absolutely no sense. It said to sew A to B and it couldn’t be done (I would post a picture of the page but I don’t want to get in trouble with the Bishop Method people for being to loosy-goosy with copyright protected materials). And then I noticed a wee small dot, like a punctuation mark, on the photo. The Letter A had been left off the diagram and replaced with a lowly, unhelpful period. Poor Edna must have been beside herself! What a thing to happen.
Here is a quick and dirty illustration of how to make The Bishop Sash.
Sew two strips of coordinating fabric, right sides together. Your finished sash will be about two-thirds as long and two-thirds as wide as the resulting piece, so plan accordingly. Now, fold the upper left-hand corner down like you were going to cut out a square for a cootie catcher. Pin that corner to the spot where it now lies, on the other strip of fabric. DO THIS RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER. This photo is wrong (oh, the irony). Remember, although this results in a bias belt the fabric is not cut on the bias so the seam allowances will fray.
Sew from the pointy part to the pin. At the pin, leave the needle down and raise the presser foot up, and take out the pin.
Pick up the top fabric. Pinch it at the point where it lies on top of the spot where your two coordinating fabrics are seamed together.
Now, bring it straight across. Now lower your presser foot. If you have done this correctly, you are ready to stitch again, and will stop when you get to that point where you pinched the top fabric, which is now lined up in front of your presser foot.
Keep pinching the top layer right at the point where it is resting over the join of your two fabrics, and bring it straight over. Do this over and over until you are out of fabric. Then press your long, spiraling seam open. Turn to right side, press under the unsewn part and sew it shut.
Done!
Does that make sense?
If you make one, please send me a picture so I can post it in my gallery!
Oh, here is the real one from the back. Yet another Bishop project that looks frumpy in the book and comes out totally cute in real life!
That is really pretty! Thank you for the detailed tutorial. I think I’ll try it!
I start by sewing them together on the long side, right??? I think I want to try this (unless, of course, you are making me a cute sash for Christmas!). I’m still at Kelley’s, so I hope I can remember to look at the tutorial again by the time I get home.
Uh-oh, I don’t want to lead you astray. I’ll call you!
Oh, that is just so clever. I *HAVE* to make one! Thanks for the tutorial.
I am looking at my Bishop book as I read your directions. The dot should be placed the same distance in on both edges where you have the pin. Sew to the dot and leave the needle down. The down position of the needle holds the seams in place. Now here is where the trick lies. Grasping the top edge of fabric (the pink piece which lays cross ways in top picture) and pivot the fabric to the right to meet and continue on with sewing your long seam. This forms a tube. I sure hope this helps.