Quilt Binding Basics

When you've gone through all the work of making a quilt and you've poured yourself into all the little decisions that go with it along the way, sometimes when you near the end, it's a temptation to just finish quickly and be done with it, but a beautifully executed binding is a really nice way to finish off your quilt with a flourish. A binding application is not a difficult thing to learn, but there are a few little tips and tricks that will help you to be successful and help your binding to look as beautiful as the rest of your quilt. So let's begin with this little quilt. This is if you had finished quilting your project and you were all ready to trim it so that you could apply the binding. You wanna use a rotary mat, you wanna use a good ruler and the longer the ruler is, the better, usually. And you're just gonna square up the quilt. Usually the lines of piecing will help you line up. You can line those up with the lines on the ruler. So you just wanna sort of give it a good look over and make sure that everything is lining up the way you want and then you're gonna trim that first side off. So you're gonna trim through all three layers and get that whole side trimmed off. And then sometimes you have to pull back a little bit so that you have space to finish. And just get everything lined up again. And there you go. So now you have established a straight edge here by aligning the ruler lines with the piecing lines and you want to do the second edge and you're gonna do that by using one of these lines that go horizontally along the edge of the quilt and that will give you a straight edge over here on the left. So the same thing, you're gonna cut through all the layers. And in the same way, you'll cut all the way around the little quilt. So once your quilt is all trimmed up, it's time to prepare your binding. And when you decide on a binding fabric, there are a couple of things that you wanna think about. One is if you want it to be a really contrasting line around the edge of the quilt or if you want it to be a line that's sort of blends in and matches. That's just an important thing to consider. And also, you wanna think about how busy of a fabric that you're choosing. A fabric like this made into a binding would be a really busy and active edge and it would add another whole design element to the quilt, so you wanna think about those things, just blending or contrasting. Those are the basic ideas. Binding can be cut either lengthwise or crosswise. When you're cutting borders for a quilt, if it's possible, you can cut the binding lengthwise, which means along the selvage, the finished edge, because there's a little bit less stretch to the lengthwise grain of the fabric. Sometimes it's possible to do that, but more often than not, you'll be cutting the binding crosswise and so that's what I'll be showing you here. So I wanna use the salvage of the fabric and one of the lines on the ruler to establish a straight line. So, we'll establish that and we'll make this first cut. And I have the advantage of being able to cut with the rotary cutter using either hand. Most people have a little bit of trouble with that, but if you can learn how to cut with both hands, you will save yourself a lot of time and energy. So I would recommend giving that a try. You're gonna cut binding strips. Our standard at Quilt Maker is two and a quarter inches wide. So you cut your binding strips and once you have all those cut, you will join them end to end with a diagonal seam and I'm gonna show you how that is done. I'm using two different fabrics here just so that it'll be more visible for you. You wanna lay these two strips at their ends with right sides together and you wanna lay them at a right angle just like so. I usually just eyeball the right angle, but if you're not comfortable with that, you can use a small ruler here just to make sure that you have a right angle. Sometimes when you first do this, it can be difficult to know if you should sew from here to here or from here to here and the way to remember is that you're gonna always sew from a corner that has a short end and a long end to another corner that has a short end and a long end. You don't wanna sew from the two shorts to the two longs. That will not get you where you want to be. So, you're gonna sew from this intersection down across here to this intersection. I usually use one pin and I try to use a very fine pin so it doesn't cause a big bump when I sew over it. If your machine is marked appropriately, you can use the marking on your machine to guide your sewing. If your machine is not marked, sometimes it's a good idea to mark the sewing line, so you're gonna go from one intersection down to the other intersection and then you'll go to the sewing machine and you'll sew on this line. And after you've done that, this is what you'll have. The next thing you'll wanna do, you can either do it with a rotary cutter or with the scissors, is you wanna trim these triangles off. So a fourth of an inch is a good guideline to leave behind as a seam allowance. So I'm just gonna trim those off and those get thrown away. And then you can see that I have this nice diagonal seam. Now, the next step to preparing the binding after you sew the diagonal seams to join all the strips together is a little pressing step. And you wanna treat your binding a little bit carefully here because it will be better if it's not all stretched out when you get ready to apply it to the quilt. So I have a cute little iron here that we'll use. I press my seam, my diagonal seam, to the side, but I know there are some people who press these seams open and I think it's one of those things that's just a matter of personal preference. Pressing it open does distribute the fullness a little bit more along that edge, but pressing it to the side works fine for me. So you're gonna do that to all the seams of the binding and then you're gonna press the binding in half like so along its entire length. And wrong sides together for this part and you just wanna be sort of gentle with it so you don't stretch it out and you wanna put a nice crease in the binding like so. So then you're ready to go to the sewing machine and add this to the edges of your trimmed quilt. So I've brought my trimmed quilt to the machine along with my prepared binding and at this point, I'm going to sew the binding to the front of the quilt. And I want to start in the middle of a side, somewhere like this. I really don't wanna start at a corner. So you wanna plan to start in the middle of a side and you wanna think ahead a little bit. Here you see that we have the diagonal seam that we made earlier and you really don't want that diagonal seam to fall on this corner, so you just wanna plan ahead a little bit, kind of back yourself into this, place it a little bit away from that corner and then go back here where you're going to start and you'll know that that won't be hitting on your corner. And on a large quilt, I would do this all the way around the quilt to make sure that I wasn't gonna hit any corners dead on. So you wanna give yourself a tail of maybe six or eight inches and you wanna give yourself some space right in here to work of maybe six inches. You'll need that space later when it's time to join the ends of the binding. And I'm gonna sew with a quarter inch seam starting here in the middle of a side all the way down to this corner, but I want to stop sewing about a fourth of an inch before I come to the corner. So I'm gonna mark that with a pin because that will be covered up by the binding and I'm gonna let that pin extend out like this so that I still have the visual indicator when the binding is laying there. I've set up the machine with a walking foot, which is a specialty foot that allows the bulkiness of the quilted quilt to feed through the machine evenly so you don't get any puckers or tucks. So using a quarter of an inch seam and my walking foot, I'm gonna go ahead and sew this to the side. If you have never invested in a walking foot, it's a tool that you won't wanna be without because it's useful definitely for binding, but also for a lot of other tasks that you'll do. So I'm gonna slow down as I approach that corner and I'm gonna put my needle down right on top of that pin. I'm gonna pull that pin out. So you can see that I've stopped sewing a fourth of an inch away from that corner. And now, I'll clip those little threads and the easiest way to see this mitered corner is to turn it so that the binding runs horizontally just like so. And this is the simplest little technique and yet it makes the nicest mitered corner. So basically what you'll wanna do is fold the binding up like so so that you have a 45-degree angle fold right here, put your finger right there and then fold the binding back down so that you have a straight edge here and here. Then, I'm gonna start sewing again, put this back under the machine and I'm gonna start sewing back here off the edge of the quilt slightly and I'll do a couple of little backstitches there just to secure it. So, I want to use my quarter of an inch seam. I'm gonna sew along this side, and once again, I'm gonna stop and take the time to mark a quarter of an inch from the end, I'm gonna sew along here until I get to the pin. I usually backstitch a couple of backstitches at the pin, take it out of the machine, clip my little threads. And I'll show you this again so you can really get it. I wanna turn it so that the binding lays horizontally like so in front of you. So you wanna fold away from you, up and away from you, and then you wanna fold back towards yourself so that you have a straight edge here and here. And when you get ready to turn the binding to the back of the quilt later, that will make a perfect little miter for you. So now I'm going to sew again with the quarter inch seam and I will backstitch here and I'll go all the way around the quilt in the same way. So I've traveled all the way around the quilt, now attaching my binding to the quilt front and I wanna stop sewing when I have some room. Remember we talked earlier about leaving yourself some room to work. So I usually leave about six or eight inches to work. You'll be glad you have that space. And I have a tail on each end and at this point, I can go ahead and, don't cut too closely, but back here a little ways and then you can get rid of that excess. So you know you have plenty, but you don't have a lot that's getting in your way. And now you're gonna make a little, create a little place, a little marker for yourself. You wanna get everything nice and flat and fold this binding together so that it just meets just like that. Head to head, fold it back and then you're gonna take a nice sharp scissor and you're gonna make a little snip right inside there, about an eighth of an inch in. So that little snip, you can see, gives me a benchmark, a place from which I can begin my sewing. Now this part is a little tricky the first couple of times you do it, but it's a really good method because you sew and contest the fit before you cut the ends of the binding off and I think that's a much safer way to join the ends than it would be if you clipped them off and then realized it's half an inch too short. So, the tail on the right gets unfolded, opened up, and it goes away from you, upward and away from you, and the tail on the left gets unfolded and it comes across toward the right. And you look for those little snips. Here's one. Here's the other one. And those are gonna get matched up just like so. And this is where you will really appreciate the fact that you left yourself some space to work. So you wanna get this all lined up real nice, you wanna get those little snips just perfect. You'll wanna get this at a 45-degree angle and you're gonna sew from up here down across to here. And again, not to panic if you're uncertain the first time you do this because even if you get it wrong the first time, you haven't cut the ends off so there's no harm done. You can always unsew it and try it again until you get it right. So, I'm gonna place a pin right here, perpendicular to where I'm gonna sew from up here to down here, and then I'll put this under my machine. And you can either use your walking foot or you can switch to a different foot. That part's totally up to you. It's really helpful at this point if you have a line marked on your machine straight out from the needle toward yourself because that's how you can sew a perfect 45-degree angle without marking. Of course, you can always mark it too if that's easier for you. So I've sewn that 45-degree angle. Now before I cut anything off, I'm gonna test this. So I just make sure did I do that correctly, does that fit, and yes it does. So now, I can take the plunge, cut off my tails, leaving about a fourth of an inch seam allowance. So now you see that we have a really nice fit and I would take this to the iron, give it a nice little press kind of gently and then I'm gonna finish sewing the binding to the quilt front, starting here and ending here so that I have attached the binding to the quilt all the way around. And then I'll be ready for the next step. So now you come to the really enjoyable part of binding if you like handwork and that's where you'll turn the binding to the back of the quilt and sew it down by hand. So you can see we've attached the binding to the quilt front and we're gonna turn the binding to the back and we'll pin it, or some people use clips so they don't poke themselves while they're working on the binding, pull that around there and I usually find that I have to put the pins parallel to the binding just like so. I would probably pin 20 or 30 inches. I wouldn't pin the entire quilt, but I would pin a pretty good section of it so that I didn't have to keep stopping to re-pin. And you wanna pull that binding to the back so that it just covers that line of stitching. Got that line of stitching right there, but it's gonna be covered up by that binding edge. I'll be all prepared to sew by hand, have a thimble, and have a threaded needle with a nice, clean quilter's knot at the end. And I'm gonna sew by hand with the blind stitch here. So I wanna come up maybe an inch, three quarters of an inch away from the binding, and I'm gonna pop that knot through the backing so that it's buried in there. Then right here at the beginning, I'll take a couple of tiny, tiny stitches to make sure everything's really secure. My thread today is sort of a neutral colored thread and a neutral colored thread often works really well. The other thing you can do is match the thread color to the binding color. That works well too. So a blind stitch is I've come up in the binding, my thread is coming out of the binding right here. Now, I'm going to put my needle down into the backing and batting, I'm gonna travel about an eighth of an inch and I'm gonna come up on the very edge of the binding, just maybe two threads in so that my stitch is actually hidden deep in the batting. So I came up in the binding, I'm gonna go down into the backing and batting about an eighth of an inch, come up into the binding just a couple threads in. So I'm gonna do that all the way around the quilt. And the one thing to pay attention to here as you go down into that backing and batting, sometimes you can accidentally get a little stitch. Here, I'll show you what happens. If you're not careful, you can go all the way through and then you end up with a little stitch on the back here in your border and you really don't want that. So you wanna kind of every so often check to make sure that you're not stitching through, that that's not showing on the front of the quilt. So you sew all the way around in that way. And when you come to a corner, you'll find that you've set yourself up for a really easy, beautifully mitered corner. I usually trim away a little bit of the bulk, about like so. Just a little dab. And you're gonna turn that binding around that corner and you're gonna sew it down all the way to this seam line and then you'll sew, miter the next one over just like so and continue sewing by hand. Applying a binding is easy and once you've done it a few times, it can be pretty quick, it can be relaxing when you get to the hand sewing part and I hope that you'll try to have beautifully executed bindings on your quilts from now on.