How-To's: Tutorials, Lessons, Learning

Tutorial:
Decorative Potholder with Painted Ladies

Tutorial:
Sewing on a Binding, front and back, and using Edyta Sitar's method of binding

Sooner or later, you're going to want to machine sew a binding to a quilt, one that won't come undone.
I've reached that point.  I have a quilt I use everyday, and the thread used to sew the binding to the back has broken.
I finally took the time to learn how to sew the binding by machine, and without any fancy stitching, or piping or anything, just plain straight stitch.
And, I decided to use Edyta Sitar's method of a non-bulky binding.

First of all, I never trim the raw edges of the quilt, until AFTER I've sewn the binding to the front of the quilt.  The binding must be filled with the raw edges.   Many quilt instruction books, if not all of them show that you should trim your raw edges down to 1/4 inch before sewing on binding.  This is a mistake.  If you binding strips that are 2 1/2 inches wide, I can almost guarantee you your binding will not be full, and it looks funny
too!

  If you place this quilt into a show, you'll get counted off for that, because your binding will be thin.   So, after quilting, I generally leave about 2 inches of raw edge around the quilt, and trim it to fit the binding as I go.

For Edyta's binding: First, sew the binding strip to the edge of the quilt.  See the large raw edge (batting showing)?  The binding is not folded over, as in more traditional binding- yet!  So you are sewing a single thickness of the binding strip to the edge.

Now fold over the binding strip, but only up to the line of stitching.

I pinned this fold in place, to hold it where I want it to stay, until folding the binding over the raw edge, next step.

Fold over the binding edge, over the raw edge.  At this point, you can pin in place and sew by hand.  This is the end of Edyta's binding instructions.  Now, I'll continue with how I sewed the binding by machine:  When pinning the folded edge of the binding to the back of the quilt, make sure you pin it so that the edge is approximately 1/8 inch OVER the row of stitching.   (The row of stitching is from where you sewed the binding strip to the front of the quilt.  That is your reference point.)  Pin from the folded edge of the binding to the raw edge, NOT the other way.  Pin heads will be on the outside of the quilt.

Here is the pinned binding, before sewing.  (There is a hanging sleeve here, which is another lesson.)

I found it was easier on my arms from getting pin pricked if I folded under the pinned edge.  I also pinned it in sections, sewed it down on the machine, then pinned another section, and so forth, instead of pinning the entire quilt.

Sew thebinding from the FRONT of the quilt, right next to the binding.  (This photo shows a walking foot on the machine, which is indispensable when sewing straight seams.)

Here's how it looks from the front......

Here's how it looks on the back.  I used white thread on the front and a carmel color thread on the back so it will blend in with the binding color.
What can go wrong?  You can get a spot that didn't stay in place while sewing:

 Leaving a gap.....

 To fix it, undo a little of the stitching on either side of the gap.... and Pin it again, and sew from the front again, securing stitches at beginning and ending of line of stitching.....

And this is how it looks, from the back, when you're done.
Now you have a binding that's securely sewn to the back of your quilt, and if it gets lots of use, it won't come undone!
And as for Edyta's method:   I like it!  the binding IS less bulky.  I think this method is perfect for machine sewing a binding to the back of the quilt.