Sew double-fold straight grain binding to your quilt for a classic finish. Sherri Bain Driver shares helpful tips and techniques, including mitering binding corners and joining binding ends.
Using 45° line on ruler, trim beginning tail of binding at 45° angle (Diagram II).
Fold binding in half, wrong sides together, and press. Beginning in the middle of one side of the quilt and leaving a 6˝ tail loose, align raw edges of binding with trimmed quilt edge (Diagram III). Pin in place if needed.
Using a walking foot or even-feed foot, stitch binding to quilt edge, using 1/4˝ seam allowance. Stop 1/4˝ from corner and backstitch (Diagram IV).
Remove quilt from machine and turn it 90°. Fold binding up, forming a 45°-angle (Diagram V).
Fold binding back down over itself, aligning fold with cut edge of quilt sandwich. Beginning 1/4˝ from edge (the same point at which you stopped stitching the first side), stitch next side (Diagram VI), backstitching at beginning and end of seam. Repeat for remaining sides and corners.
Getting it sewed all around is fine. It is flipping it over the back and getting the mitered corners where they need to line up that becomes a problem. Seeing an actual picture or pictures would be a great help.
I'm afraid we're unable to add footage to this video, but here are a few tips that might help: Diagram IV, Carefully measure that your stitches stop 1/4" short of the corner; Diagram V, make certain that when you fold your binding up, the right edge of the binding is EVEN with the right edge of the quilt top; Diagram VI, make certain that when you fold the binding down, the fold is FLUSH with the top edge, and NOT just below the top edge. Careful attention to each of those steps contribute to having just the right amount of binding at the corner to form a neat, 90 degree corner when the binding is turned to the back. I'm sure you'll get it right as you get more practice - hope these tips help!
I have watched this great video on attaching the binding. Mitered corners have always been a problem for me. But I can sew the binding on but just can't get the actual mitered corners when I flip the binding over. Can you please show me those steps? My corners look more like curves!
Thanks so much!!
Very clear, and informative. Thanks. Something I mess up 50% of the time. Now I see what I was doing wrong. Beautiful quilt, lovely work. Great directions.
How to Bind a Quilt Step 2 of 4: Sewing the Binding Strips to the Quilt, FREE quilting video lesson at McCallsQuilting.com. Sew double-fold straight grain binding to your quilt for a classic finish. Sherri Bain Driver shares helpful tips and techniques, including mitering binding corners and joining binding ends. Our experienced quilting editors help you with your quilting problems, and help you improve your quilting skills.
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