Sunday, August 27, 2006

How Leah Binds, Part 3

Part 1
Part 2

Now I start hand sewing down the binding. You will need to fold the extra .5" of batting when you fold the binding down. It should be completely hidden behind the binding, but if some is still showing, just tuck or fold again.


Here shows the first few stitches. My stitches gap about a quarter-inch. You can't see any of the extra batting edge. :)


Here we come to a corner. It's much trickier for lefties. First you need to fold down the right side of the binding - which I've pinned in place. Then bring down the left side and continue to sew.

Obviously if you're right handed, this isn't going to be an issue, since you'll have sewn down the right side first.

I "torture" myself this way so I can have nice even mitered corners.

Continue to hand sew all around the quilt, and then you're done with the binding!

I hope it all makes sense - take what you want, dump what information you don't need. :)

Leah

5 comments:

Andrea said...

About how long does it take you to hand sew the binding down on a quilt? I've never actually sewn binding onto a quilt. :)

Sweet P said...

I always thought you had to trim the batting and the backing before putting on the binding. You didn't do that. Does it make putting binding on easier?

Marlublu said...

I always hand bind my quilts too but I never turn the binding over. I always cut it another matching fabric. I often sew scraps into strips and use that for binding. I always trim the extra batting from the edges also. Different strokes for different folkes I guess.

Gail said...

Thanks for the tip about leaving .5 of the batting. I have always trimmed even with the borders, but worried about the bindings being so 'empty'. Don't know why this never occured to me, or why I haven't seen it mentioned before, but its a great solution.

Patti said...

Great tutorial! This is almost exactly the way I do it. I never thought of leaving extra batting. I'll have to try that, though I hardly ever have a problem with an "empty" binding.