Recycled Wool Binding Tutorial

my son gets red marks around the legs from being in elastic too often (polybraid or foe, doesnt matter) so i try to have less elastic on his thighs as possible. i decided to use the wool ribbing from the waist of the sweater as binding. basically you are just using it the same as FOE.


cut off the ribbed part along the waist to make a ribbed, wool ribbon to your desired thickness, i like approx. 2".






just like FOE, take your wool binding and fold in half while sandwiching the edge of the wool that you are binding. in this case, i am binding the legs of the soaker. tack it down. then, pull the binding part tight as you would FOE or elastic and sew a straight stitch. do not pull the soaker, it needs to remain relaxed to get a somewhat gathered effect.







sew until you reach the point that you started. sew the binding slightly overlapping the beginning, tack, and turn so that you can now sew straight down (similar to casings) as shown.




remove from machine. fold back the extra binding, pull it back and trim the extra off closely to the seam. proceed to trim the extra all along the seam of your newly bound area. yay! you have made wool binding for your woolies :)