Ooh La La Pin-Up Sew-Along... Binding the raw edges.

Last time for the Ooh La La Pin-Up Sew-Along we had just finished our bra back closure and basted the top together in anticipation of binding the raw edges.

The pattern we're using...

Allow me to begin with a nice healthy rant. Here in Norway we don't have any convenient fabric shop chains like I enjoyed when we lived in the States. Here my only option is the local, often poorly stocked and messy haberdashery. I buy my pretty satin bias binding by the meter/ yard from a roll (about $6 per yard, ouch!).  I recently asked for 1 meter and watched as it was measured out and cut before my eyes. Then I got it home and realized that the shop attendant had carefully concealed between pinched fingers the fact that the length was cut right in the middle and TAPED together. I was furious. I needed the whole thing to be one continuous piece!

Grrr. I hate sewing binding together, that's the whole convenience of not making my own, dammit.

So I thought about what I could do to bind the top of my bra and still have it look nice without some sort of center binding seam.

I decided to bind the top starting at the center and working my way out in each direction, then add a nice little embellishment to the center front to conceal any imperfect edges. This is a focal point, after all. :)

If you're not sure how to attach your bias binding, it's the same as when we bound our corset. (Thanks again to Sarah for such a great post!)

My closure back edge, almost neatly bound.

So to add that extra unique touch, and to have a cleanly finished center front, I took the extra couple of inches of bias tape I had left over and pinned it down the center front outside of my bra with the ends folded under at the top and bottom and overlapping to the inside by about 1/2".

A couple of rows of stitching about 1/8" from the outside edge secured it nicely in place.

 And after we sew our straps on in the next post, we'll be done!
Wow! How is your bra coming along? Have you hit any speed bumps? Any questions for Sarah and I?