Making bias tape with basic sewing tools: Part 1

So I live in a small town where the only place to buy craft supplies is Wally World.  And since it is a small town they seem to have an even poorer selection than a Wally World in a big town.  So when I needed bias tape this past week, they didn't have any colors that would work for me.  So I thought I should make my own, but I don't have a bias tape maker so I hopped on facebook and asked all my facebook friends if they had one I could borrow.  No one did, but I did get a suggestion which led to some research and me making beautiful bias tape without any fancy tools.  And it turned out beautiful.

So here's what you will need:
Cutting mat
Rotary blade
ruler
sissors
fabric pen
iron and ironing board*
long needle or pen*

*These items will be used in part 2

So today let's go over sewing and cutting your bias strip then in a couple days I will show you the fancy easy trick to fold your bias tape.
I had read some tutorials on this subject but I was still lost so I went to trusty old you tube.  I found this video that is awesome and there really isn't anything I can do to improve upon it so just go watch this video.

Now I do have one tip that might help you with this.  By far the trickiest part is folding the bias tape to make a tube.  So I have this handy dandy diagram for you.  (I know I am not very good at this).  So you see we have points A, B, C, and D.  I also have two spots marked 1 and 2, these spots are where you have your 2 inch lines. 

What you are going to do is match 1 to A and 2 to C.  B and D will be left hanging off the ends.  You need to sew between 1A and 2C but not B or D.

Also here is a formula that will help you estimate how much bias tape you will get.
 A 10 inch square will give you 5 10X2 inch strips which equals 50 inches. You will lose length in your seems.  So if you are doing 1/4" seems you will lose 1/2inch total at each seem and there will be a total of 4 seems (1 less than the number of strips you have) making you lose 2 total inches.  Also you will lose about 1 inch at each end because it is on a diagonal making another 2 inch loss.  So you will get about 46 inches of bias tape from a 10 inch square. Which is 1 yd and 10 inches. 

I hope this helps.  Good luck!

And here is a sneak peak at what I did with this bias tape.