It's a quilter and sewist's must-have gizmo being developed by a two-person team of a quilt designer/online shop owner and entrepreneur/inventor.
The Easy Binding Winder is a tool designed to help the quilter or sewer keep their miles of quilt binding, bias tape, piping, etc., under control. In a nutshell, as you iron your strips of fabric in half, you thread it onto the EBW and use the handcrank to wind it up. (Just like we used to do with car windows before they became electric!) Then, after your lo-o-o-ng strip (as much as 40 feet for a king size quilt!) is totally wound up on the reel, you can take it over to your sewing machine and sew it onto your quilt (for instance) while it stays perfectly in control, slowly unwinding without twisting, tangling, knotting, or getting caught under your feet or sewing chair. Bonus: your miles o' binding are now kitty and puppy proof!
I was asked to put the prototype through its paces recently so I gave it a whirl.
This is the 3D-printed prototype of the future Easy Binding Winder. I had no idea what a 3D-printer was or that it could produce something that was, well...you know...3D!
There's one part missing from the photo - the little clamp to attach it to your ironing board. Since I was just testing this on my cutting table, I didn't need it. But the clamp keeps the Easy Binding Winder steady while you're ironing with one hand and winding with the other.
So here's the deal. This is how my binding looks as I get ready to press it. This was actually for a wallhanging, so it's only about 12' long.
I conscripted Gillian and Laura to help me - they were the hand models, and I was the photographer. This is how they looked when I explained what they were going to have to do: press/manage binding the old fashioned way. The outlook was bleak and drab.
They so didn't want to make binding.
And can you blame them? As they pressed the binding strip in half it piled up in a wad, then started to cascade over the edge of the cutting table and ended up a tangled mass on the floor.
I mercifully let them stop before they'd gone too far, but already you can see that the binding is starting to tangle. Imagine the pile that 40' of binding would make!
Easy Binding Winder to the rescue!
If you're right-handed, you'll place the EBW to your left on the ironing board and attach it with the clamp, not shown here, cuz I didn't need it! Press just the first couple of inches of your fabric in half, and feed it under the rod at the bottom, and slide it under the clip on the actual spool.
Once threaded, you can lay your iron down on the fabric close to the EBW, and begin to turn the handle which pulls the binding under the iron and winds it up neatly onto the spool. With the right hand, you can direct the fabric as it goes under the iron. Or you can do it the regular way, pressing a bit, then winding a bit. Think of that song from The Music Man: Press a little, wind a little, press a little, wind a little; press, press, press, wind it up, wind it up a little.
LOL. I crack myself up. For real.
Sorry - back to business - pressing, winding...
All 12' feet of the binding is wound neatly on the spool at this point and can now be removed from the Easy Binding Winder.
You can either set the smoothly wound spool of binding aside to keep with your project until you're ready to attach it, or you can take the whole thing over to your sewing machine and set it to the side and begin attaching the binding to your quilt. It will unwind smoothly as you sew it on. No tangles, no twists, no wadded balls of binding in your lap, on the floor, under your chair, or being dragged through a maze of table and chair legs by your 4-legged friends!
And when you're through, you'll have a whole new outlook just like these two:
Check out the video demo on their
And be sure to Like them on Facebook so you don't miss out on any of the action!
Super Secret News Flash!
My sources have told me that they're also developing an adapter for the yarn-o-philes out there - perfect for winding your skeins of yarn into beautiful, perfect orbs!
Ssshhhhh - keep it on the down-low!
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1 comment:
Thanks for sharing. I may have to jump over and order one because I'm usually stepping all over the binding or the pup trys to run off with it.
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