Experimenting with BabyLock’s Double Fold Bias Binder

When I purchased my Baby Lock Gloria sewing machine, it came with a bonus 8mm Double Fold Binder. A year later I finally gave it a try. Here’s my experiment log and what I’ve learnt.

Video reference

Showcase videos were easy enough to find, but I couldn’t find too many references for how to use this tool well. Then I found that Baby Lock Japan’s channel had sample project videos that explained how to use their 4-fold binder.

This video is for the Kanade machine so it a little bit different in that it’s expecting a roll of tape, but otherwise looks the same. It guides though how to align the binder’s teeth and make adjustments when it’s attached to the sewing machine.

This t-shirt making tutorial video from 1:49 includes how to set the knit binder up, how and why adjust it, and how to sew a neckline with it. Very useful 😀

How to use the Double Fold Binder

So here’s the text version of how to use Babylock’s 8mm double fold binder.

Preparation

• Prepare the fabric tape
  • Prepare fabric tape which is 30mm wide;
  • Woven fabric tape works too if it’s cut on the bias.
  • Cut the start of the tape in a “<” angle shape so it’s easier to insert.
• Set up the sewing machine
  • Set up the baby lock sewing machine to be in chain stitch or narrow cover stitch mode.
  • Thread the machine (the front door needs to be closed to install the binder).
  • Raise the needle and foot.
• Install the knit binder
  • Adjust the two minus screws on the binder itself so that the bottom tooth comes out slightly than the top tooth.
  • Use the 2 white hand screws to screw in the binder to the cover-stitch table (to the 2 closest screw holes to you). Align the tooth so it’s about 2mm to the left of the left needle.

Inserting the fabric tape

Sewing the binding

Experiments

Woven binding tape

Here’s the front (bottom) and back (top) of the bias binding experiment with Babylock’s 8mm double fold (aka 4ply) binder, sewn with a chain stitch in the C1 needle. Imagine the beautiful necklines this could make!

This photo is actually from my second try, as the first one went curly wurlys on me.

Woven bias tape worked really well on straighter lines. When binding curvier fabrics, the bound tape tended to curl – but it could also have been that my “bias” tape was cut at about 15° as I was using scrap fabric. I’ll come back when I experiment properly with true 45° bias tapes on necklines.

Knit binding tape

Apart from the knit tape being tricky to feed into the binder (especially to get it out of the binder’s mouth on its left), binding with knit tape (cut straight, not on the bias) worked pretty well on the first try.

But there’s some gathered waves appearing in the main fabric. So how to fix that?

This video mentions that it helps to pull on the main fabric a little as it gets fed into the binder. That makes sense; it’s like the return of the jersey tape is making waves.

The knit binder has so much potential! Enough experimenting for today though – will come back to perfect my binding later!