Ever felt discouraged by the standard quilt pattern phrase "Quilt and bind as desired"? Look no further! Learn how to bind your quilts like a pro.
In fact, one of my favorite parts of making a quilt is binding it! In this tutorial you'll learn how to achieve perfect corners and (almost) invisible seams. You'll add the binding to the front of the quilt by machine using a specific technique in the corners, then sew it by hand to the back.
Binding the waffles and jam quilt
With a few tips and tricks, you'll be able to add a beautiful, clean edge to your quilt and show off your hard work with pride. Let’s get started!
- Start by using a rotary cutter and a cutting mat to cut the desired number of strips needed for your quilt. If you need to find out how many strips you need for binding, or how much fabric to buy, check out this blog post where you'll learn how to find out just that! I prefer to use binding that is
2 ¼" or 2 1/2" wide. We'll assume 2 1/2" in this tutorial. - Cut the selvedges off your strips.
- Put two strips on top of each other at a 45 degree angle, right sides together (RST), as shown. Trim off corners with a ¼" seam allowance.
- Press seams open. Fold the binding strip in two, wrong sides together, and press. You now have (1) long 1 1/8" double binding strip.
- Start in the middle of the first side of your quilt. Lay the binding strip on top of the front side of your quilt. Align the raw edges of your binding strip to the raw edge of your quilt. If you want to pin or use clips to keep the binding in place, do that, but only till the first corner.
- Start sewing, but leave a 8–10" long tail. Sew with a 1/4" seam allowance along the edge. I find that using a walking foot is helpful in feeding the quilt evenly through the machine.
- Keep sewing along the edge. When you are approaching the first corner, stop sewing ¼" from the corner of the quilt. Leave the needle down, lift your presser foot and turn the quilt a little before you sew off the edge. Cut the threads and lift the quilt out.
- Fold the binding strip up in a 90 degree angle, and then down again, aligning both sides to the sides of the quilt corner.
- Put a pin in the corner if you need to secure the ends. If you prefer to pin or clip the binding, do that for the next side of the quilt.
- Start sewing the next side, ¼" away from the corner, but making sure that you don't sew into the folded fabric underneath.
The binding should be aligned to the edge of your quilt top on both sides of the corner. And if you flip your corner up, it should look something like this.
- Keep going like this until you are around 14–16" from your starting point. Remove the pins.
- Place the remaining binding strip over the start of the binding strip and cut it so that it overlaps with exactly 2 1/2". (If you use a wider or narrower binding, adjust the overlap accordingly. The overlap needs to be the exact same as the width of your binding strip before you folded it in half.)
- Open the binding strip edges and turn them right sides together at a 90 degree angle. Sew them together like you did with the other binding strips, in a straight line from corner to corner.
- Trim the corners off ¼" to the outside.
- Lay the quilt down and fold the rest of the binding in half. Sew the remaining part of the binding to the quilt.
- Turn the binding over to the back and secure it with clips or pins. Make sure you fold it enough to cover the seam on the back.
- Adjust your corners so they are mitered. First, fold one side of the corner in. Then the other one on top of the first one. This can be a little fiddly, but if your seams start and stop 1/4" from the corner on both sides, it will be easy to achieve a mitered corner.
- Hand stitch the binding to the back of your quilt. Hide your thread inside the binding so that only tiny stitches are visible along the seam.
- I prefer to use a rather short thread, just a little longer than my underarm. If it is too long, it will tangle, which is a lot more annoying than changing threads often. :-)
- In the corners, secure the fold with a couple of stitches on the front as well as on the back.
Voilá! Your masterpiece is done!
