Oh, and I also starch fabric heavily before cutting into bias strips to pull through the Clover tool.
Here's my method for starching. I place the fabric on my kitchen island and prepare a 1:2 solution of Sta-Flo liquid laundry starch and water. I use a large painting brush (the kind you use to paint a house wall) to saturate the fabric with the starch solution. I throw the saturated fabric into the dryer and afterwards iron it with steam. This makes it about as stiff as a thin piece of cardboard! Makes the fabric very easy to cut accurately into bias strips and makes it easy to thread fabric through the Clover tool. The folds stay crisp as you work too.
Sta-Flo can be purchased in just about any store's laundry section (grocery, Walmart, Target).
Bias strips are easy to pre-shape, especially if you are working on tight curves. You can draw the curving stem shape on a piece of paper, pin the bias strip to the paper right into the ironing board, and use a steam iron to coax and fix the bias strip into the shape you want. This makes it even easier to hand stitch the strip to your foundation fabric.