hello my name is star Henderson with
fronter house quilts and today I'm going
to show you how I make my
stems um I really love let me find it
here a tool that is made by
Clover it is one of my f it's my
favorite way to make a bias tape or stem
and it's this one is the quarter inch
one and that's what we're going to be
using today they have several sizes I
have a few of of them but this is a
number
six and I really like this this brand
the best because so I've had the best
luck with it I I hardly ever have
problems when I'm doing using this
particular tool but you first have to
start with a bias strip for a quarter
inch you basically are going to double
the size so you're going to need half
inch bias strips and the way to go about
getting something on the bias which
means instead of going with the grain
you're going at an angle kind of across
the Grain and that's going to give it
stretch
so what you do is I usually start with a
10-in square because like what I'm
working on right now that I'm cutting
this four is a big quilt and I'm going
to need a lot of bias te bias uh stems
so I'm just I start with a 10-in square
it's small enough that my ruler can go
across on the diagonal so you're going
to cut a square and then you're going to
cut
from corner to opposite corner you're
going to cut it on the diagonal and I
just can't get far enough away for you
to see that very easily but I will try
here but you can
see that I'm starting in one
corner and it's going to go to the next
corner and that is how you cut this so I
start by making that first cut after
I've got my square and you can start
with any size Square this is just a
comfortable size cuz most of my pieces
for this are not going to
be whoops any longer be careful that
your ruler doesn't
slip after you get it
cut on that diagonal then I very
carefully you're working with bias Ed
they will stretch I carefully fold my
piece over and I line up my
edges which is not hard to
do then I'm going to turn my board so I
don't have to pick those up and now I am
going to cut half inch strips and I'm
cutting two at a time because I've
doubled this and you just going to line
your ruler up on a half inch
line and very carefully make a cut and
you're going to cut this all the way
down until you get small enough that you
don't want to use one some that
short but you'd be surprised what you
can do with a short piece
so okay now I've got those cut I'm going
to carefully move this over I'll finish
cutting those later for some
more separate one
out now I'm going
to go to the pressing portion you want
to get your iron
hot
and I lay my piece
out like this and I start with a pen in
the end now I am right-handed so I'm
going to be working from right to left
if you're left-handed you just do it in
the opposite direction and I also kind
of like this board that I've got that's
got straight lines on it it just kind of
keeps me from going in a curve and
pressing a curve into this that I don't
want so I'm going to spray this whole
length which is actually about 15 in cuz
I was going you know from corner to
corner and I'm going to put this right
side on the bottom so your wrong side's
going to be facing where your the B this
is the wrong side and it's going to go
towards the what is the actual top of
your make your tape maker and you can
get these at quilt stores and other
fabric places or you can order them
online now I get in in like this it may
be hard to see but here's the fabric and
it's hard to catch so I just take a pen
and kind of pull it through and
sometimes it doesn't come through the
way you want so I pull it back and I do
it
again once I see a little piece come
out there we go now you can see it
automatically folds this into this/
quter
inch and then so that you can see it I'm
going to put this a little
differently I like to have my pin where
I can um put a little tension so I pin
it at the other end and I've just got a
barely little bit here sticking out so
you can take your iron and be careful
anytime you use an iron you have to be
very very careful and you're going to
start and what you're doing is you're
drying this
starch that you put on here very slowly
you pull it back and as you do there's
this little little line in the very
center of this and I just make sure that
I can see the folds of my uh bias tape
here right with that
line I'm going to lift it
up and you can see that I'm going to
pull this a little bit further
further I'm working in a little more
limited space because of filming
normally I have this all stretched out
across my whole board
so I'm going to keep right on going I
lay my iron down first because you have
to have a little tension and then after
I pull I
press you're going to pull and press
just very slowly this isn't hard but it
is
delicate now I can
see my tape on the other side of my iron
so I'm going to put another pen and I'm
going to pull it I'm going to go ahead
and reposition a little
bit and I'm going to pin it down here
where I've already pressed again that
just provides me with a little bit of
tension which helps this to just work
better and I'm just going to keep right
on
going all the way down this whole length
of
this this is how I make my quarter in
pieces and as soon as I get this
done I'm going
to okay I'm going to move it again just
because it's a little better for me
to the way I'm sitting sometimes you
have to kind of mess with your with it
because it's it stops wanting to be
right in the center where you want it to
be
so I move it around a little bit till I
get it back where I want it and this
takes a little bit of practice but
honestly this is the easiest way I have
come I have found for making a bias stem
for making my stems doing a
bias I'm going keep right on
going almost
done
yeah and I really like it because un
like the bars and other methods that
I've used this is a very
flat
piece and to me that just looks neater
looks very
neat and if you get this very wet which
sometimes I do on accident it will Steam
on you so be careful as you're ironing
you might steam yourself all right now
now that's a/4 inch I mean just look at
that now if I want a piece and I'm going
to get one that I've already got done
that's a little shorter to do this with
that say I want an eighth of an inch
just before I lay it
down and they're usually shorter pieces
let me find a short one
here there's one no it's not
ah
I will take I'll take a quarter inch
that I've just
done and the part that where the the raw
edges where you can see them not the
right side but the wrong side I will
just take it and go ahead and fold it
over like
this and very very
carefully little bit at a time I press
it again and just put a crease right
down the center just folding it in half
and it never starts off quite right it's
a little hard because you're at the very
end so I start it there and I move it
down and I just
keep pressing don't hold it too long on
there you'll Scorch your fabric which I
did the other day oops but I will go
ahead and do
that
and just keep right on working it
down until I get this quarter in I mean
this eighth of an inch piece that I then
can lay down for much tinier stems and
that's about as Tiny as I've been able
to
go but I like that for some things
instead of embroidery there's sometimes
I I want to keep the exact
same um the fabric instead of doing an
embroidery Stitch and that's or I may
just want to really tiny stem but this
is how I get an eighth of an inch and
then you just lay it down like you would
any and and you just applicate it
down this is Starla Henderson with
fronter house quilts and this is how I
make my stamps thank you for joining me
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