I am going to attempt a Hanna knockoff, and I want to use ribbing for the cuffs but bind the neck. I have a binding foot, and twin stretch needles... I am going to try a few things this afternoon and see what works.

Anyone want to post their method?

Well, there are two ways I do it...one more bulky than the other, so the weight of the fabric will play a part in which I choose. The bulkier way is nice, since it leaves no unfinished edges. The second way turns out nicely if you trim close to the stitching on the inside. You can do either it in the round after you sew the item....or you can leave one shoulder unsewn, bind and then sew it up. I always do it in the round though.

1) Take a strip of your binding fabric cut on the crosswise grain. Calculate the length you need based on the size of your opening. If I am binding with something stretchy like ribbing, I make my strip 1" less than the opening. If it's interlock or something less stretchy I make it equal...after sewing it together, it will be a little shorter. You want to make the strip 4x your desired finished width plus seam allowances. Stitch short edges together. Fold the strip in half and press, being careful not to stretch it out. Sew the strip on to the inside of the garment, matching the raw edges of the binding with the raw edges of the garment. The seam allowance will also affect you finished binding width, so keep that in mind. I ease it on, having it a little tighter in the front than in the back, to prevent gaping. Then, flip the binding over the cut edges and seam allowance, to the front and topstitch (two rows looks especially nice) into place. You can also sew it on from the front, but flip it to the inside...this is harder to stitch down though, imho, because if you do it from the front, you might miss the binding in a few places....and if you do it from the back, you might not have the stitching straight on the front, kwim? But that's one of myh downfalls....ymmv! LOL This one is nice since it leaves everything enclosed, but with an interlock it can get bulky and is difficult (at least for me, LOL) to make it narrower than 1/2" on interlock. Works great on rayons and other wovens though...but you would want to cut it on the bias in that case.

2) The alternative is to start with a strip of fabric that is single-layer, approx. 3x finished width plus seam allowances....match on raw edge with raw edge of garment....sew on from front (use seam allowance that you want the approx width to be, flip to back over SA, topstitch from front (you'll have plenty of extra width to catch on the back since it starts out really wide) and then trim the excess from the back close to the stitching. I like this one a lot too...if you can trim really close, this one is great. On this one, I apply to the finished neckline but I don't stitch this into a circle first...I fold under the edge in the middle back.

Hope this all makes sense. I am a little sleepy!!! LOL

Michele

Makes perfect sense! Thanks so much for explaining this...I've been wanting to learn how to do this. :)

Thanks Michele, that made perfect sense! I'll do some tests on my fabric to see which method works better.

Thanks again!

You're welcome Julia and Heather! I am glad it wasn't incoherent! Let me know how it turns out if you try it! :)

it's what I used with a kwik sew pattern, it was so easy to understand and follow, I highly recommend it.

http://www.cookiepants.com/craftymom.htm

It was really easy, using knit or fleece. As I did with the sweats on the top.

Meg