What kind of bias maker are you using? Is it the eletric one from Simplicity? Or is it a little Clover thing?

I make mine with the little Clover doohickey. First thing I do is heavily starch the fabric before cutting the strips. This helps control the bias fabric. For a 1/2-inch finished vine, I would cut my strips 1-inch wide. This gives 1/2" on the finished side and two 1/4" folds underneath. Once I get the fabric through the doohickey (an angled cut end helps), I place the doohickey flat side down on the ironing board and adjust the fabric so the folds are just right and iron them in. At this point I place a large pin or needle into the ironing board and run that finished end through it. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPrFfg9rtmM shows how I use the needle, although she is not using the Clover doohickey.) If I am making lots of tape, I like to irong a little more tape and put another pin/needle into the ironing board an iron's width away. Once I am sure I am ready, I place the iron between the two needles and pull the fabric strip underneath the iron, feeding from the Clover doohickey. As someone else mentioned, you do have to take care that the fabric strip is feeding through the Clover tool evenly.

If you go to youtube.com and type in how to make bias tape, you will get several videos that explain how to do this. How this helps.

Also remember you can trim the extra fabric in back of the vine. It can be as little as 1/8 inch. I use the bias bars all the time. I think you could go up to the next size for a 5-1/2" border. Luann