PREPARING YOUR BAN-ROL TAPE
One of the simplest and most powerful tools I have in my arsenal is this tape, referred to as Ban-Rol tape. I use it to make a nice baby hem, a simple 1/4″ turn hem on shirting, as well as prepping flat fell seams. You’re likely to work with 3 different widths at most: 1/8″ for baby hem, 1/4″ for shirting hems and flat fell seams, and maybe 3/8″ for a slightly larger flat fell seam, and since this tape is reusable, buying a few yards will last you a long time.
Prior to using it, you want to make sure that the part you’ll be using is straight and uniform, as these tapes are not perfect out of the box. To do this, you want to start unraveling the tape removing few strings all along one edge.
Nest step is to cut off these “teeth” to make sure the edge is straight from the beginning to the end of the tape.
Now the tape is ready to be prepared for different tasks.
Determining the length of each tape you’re preparing will depend on which projects you’re using it for. I like to have my 1/8″ baby hem tape on a longer side, as I can use it on very wide sweeps of the skirts and dresses, while my 1/4″ tape is shorter, as I tend to use it mostly for shirting. You can also easily add on to the length of your tape by overlaying one piece over another when using it. I will show an example of this and different uses of this wonder tool in other tutorials.