I discovered the most darling handmade bias tape for sale on Etsy a while back and wondered who in the world would want to do that much cutting and ironing? Of course, that was before I learned about the Simplicity Rotary Cutter & Embosser. I first saw this machine at the Bay Area Maker Faire in May being demo’d by Drew Emborsky, The Crochet Dude. (Don’t get me started on what a nice guy Drew is!) He was cutting strips of fabric to crochet into things like trivets and rugs. Then he told me about the other features: embossing, paper cutting, scalloped edge trimming, all for fabric AND paper! (No blades to dull!)

Thankfully, Simplicity was so kind as to send the Deluxe Rotary Cutter & Embosser to me to try out. AND…they also sent along the Simplicity Bias Tape Maker! Wait until you see how much fun these machines are!!I couldn’t wait to make my own bias tape. I simply fed fabric through the rotary trimmer to cut into desired width strips. (This is what it looks like coming from the back of the machine.)

I sewed the lengths of strips together on the diagonal.

After pressing the seams flat, I wound the long strip onto a bias tape spindle…

and fed the end of the strip into the bias tape tip (so many sizes available!)

I pulled the starter end of bias tape across the ironing plate,

covered the plate and started the machine.Way. Too. Easy!

I pressed my bias tape in half and wound around 2.25″ wide recycled vintage rick-rack & seam edging cardboard pieces.I designed some fun labels and wrapped them around the bias tape cards with the size and lengths noted.

Help yourself to the labels as well by clicking on the image for a FREE PDF download to print to plain paper. (You can alter the colors with image editing software to better match your fabric colors.)But, I didn’t stop there…

You know I love vintage cigar box graphics and have a nice little collection of box label/edge trimming. (I made the their rack from a vintage Knit Rule and bulldog clips to hang them.)I thought cigar box label designs would pair so great with one of my favorite bags- a vintage military medic pouch. I love this thing, as funky as it is. It’s the best flea market purse and my iPad fits into it perfectly. So once I had the hang of making bias tape, I thought it would be cool to make my own designs. I scanned a couple of cigar box strips and modified the wording in Photoshop to my name and monogram. Because I can.I printed the designs in rows onto inkjet printable cotton sheets. With the paper backing still attached to the cotton, I ran the strips through the rotary cutter.I removed the paper backing and seamed the strips together on my sewing machine before running them through the bias tape maker.After pressing the tape in half, I hand sewed the tiny bias tape around the flap of my bag. No easy task as that military-grade fabric is incredibly beefy. I chose hand-sewing because of the width of the tape, I knew I’d never get through all those layers with any kind of precision on a sewing machine.I trimmed out the little hanging straps and called it a day. My fingers hurt. (Should’ve used a thimble.)I think my personalized catch-all bag turned out fun. And it just goes to show that the sky’s the limit with these awesome Simplicity machines!Just THINK of the things you can trim!

THE GIVEAWAY

One JSIM reader will win:

The Simplicity Deluxe Rotary Cutter & Embosser

$199.99 Value!

AND

another JSIM reader will win:

The Simplicity Bias Tape Maker

$99.99 Value!

TO ENTER to win one of the Simplicity machines, please visit the Simplicity website and leave any kind of nice Simplicity product-related comment on this post. ENTRIES CLOSE on Saturday, August 20 at noon (PDT.) Winners will be randomly chosen, notified and posted right here shortly after close of the giveaway. Entry Closed.

The winner of the The Simplicity Deluxe Rotary Cutter & Embosser is

#284 – Annipopanni

The winner of the The Simplicity Bias Tape Maker

is #597 – Karen