Post by jennilee on Apr 24, 2020 16:40:18 GMT -6
From the old boards
How to put on a binding
First off... this is your friendly reminder that everything is left handed. Sometimes it doesn't matter so much, like in how to quilt the 9-patch. Sometimes it means that you'll be doing a 180 compare to the pictures, if you're right handed. If something isn't working out for you, try doing it the other way/direction.
To get started, you need 2.5 strips. I'm assuming they're about 40" long. You'll want 20 inches more than perimeter. So, let's say that your quilt is 50 inches on each side. That's 200 inches total. Plus 20 is 220 inches of binding. Divide that by 40, round it UP. 220/40 = 5.5. So we need 6 2.5" strips.
Now we need to make your strips one continuous piece. Take strip 1 and 2, and (either ends) overlap them as shown in the picture. You will be sewing diagonally. (I just eyeball it... but you're welcomed to mark it).
After you sew it diagonally (and no, I don't backstitch), you need to trim off the corner, and the "dog ears". You will trim it about 1/4" of an inch from the seam.
Then take the other end of strip 2 and add strip 3 in the same manner. Keep on doing this until you have one long strip. You can sew all the ends together, cut them, then iron. Saves time.
Now with each seam allowance, we need to iron them open. This will help distribute the bulk in the binding.
Fold it in half, wrong sides together and iron. Continue until you've ironed the entire piece to half of the starting width.
All ironed up! Also take a moment to make sure your ends are straight. Cut them if you need to.
Take the binding to your quilt now. Start on the middle of any side of the quilt. About 8" below the end of the binding (where it's pinned) is where you start to sew. Go ahead and let the end flap around, we'll deal with it after we sew most of the binding on.
Now start to sew down all the way to 1/4th of an inch BEFORE the corner. I don't bother to pin the binding in place. I just guide it in place as I sew. Occasionally I'll need a pin to help me control it, but generally it goes much faster without needing to pin.
Now we're at the corner. I stopped 1/4th of an inch before I reached the end of the quilt corner.
I have a notch on my foot that lets me know where the 1/4th mark is from the needle. You may need to place a pin or something. Just stop 1/4th of an inch before the end of the quilt. No need to backstitch here.
Now lift up your foot and pull the quilt about 2 inches away. Don't cut the thread!
Turn the quilt so you're facing the next side that needs to be sewn on.
Now lift up your binding so it forms a mitered fold. The strip is straight with the edge of the quilt that you will sew next.
Now fold the strip down. We're still keeping our mitered corner, it's just hidden. The fold needs to happen at the edge of the quilt, where we just sewed.
Now we're ready to start sewing the down on the next row. I usually start about 1 stitch above the fold of the binding.
Begin to sew down the next side of the binding, all away to the 1/4th of the next corner. Continue until all sides have been sewn.
But leave a foot-long gap between the binding's starting point (where you took your first stitch) and the end.
Here's the gap. Time to take the quilt off the machine. We're gonna join the binding now.
Make sure this spot is laying flat. Cutting mat, ironing board, all good flat spots. We want the strips to overlap each other.
The strips will need to overlap each other by the width of the strip. Remember how you cut your strips 2.5" wide? That's how much the binding ends need to overlap. If you made a 3" wide binding, then it needs to overlap by 3". I've marked the 2.5" spot with a pin.
Now we need to open the strips. I left the pin in the "top" binding piece (yellow) to mark the 2.5" spot. (We'll cut it later, but we need to make sure the measurement is correct).
We also need to make a diagonal line on the end of the purple binding. I ironed the mark in place, but you could pencil it, if you wished. (Honestly, I usually just "finger press" the mark in place and eyeball it as I sew it later. But I'm a lazy quilter. )
Bring the ends together, right sides together, at a right angle. See the arrow? It marks where the pin is, at the 2.5" overlap point.
Sew down the diagonal line you ironed. But don't cut any fabric yet.
We're going to straighten the binding to the side of the quilt. What you see above is "inside" the binding.
Does it lay nice a flat? Not too tight? Not too much? Good. Now we can cut the excess off. Just like how we trimmed the other diagonal lines at 1/4" from the seam, same thing here. Open the seam allowance and it's ready to sew on. (I finger press, but of course, you can iron. Did I say lazy?)
If it doesn't lay flat, or something is twist wrong... undo your stitches and try again. This is how both left and right handed people put the binding on, so don't try to mentally "flip" the images here.
Sew down the rest of the binding. Overlap the earlier ending point and the beginning, this will act as a "backstitch" to hold it secure.
Time to cut off the excess. To have a nice full and attractive binding, we will cut 1/2" away from the quilt edge.
So even if your sewing was a little wobbly, you can have a nice straight edge.
Here's the corner. We need to trim it away cuz it'll be too bulky otherwise.
Cut the corner (not the binding or quilt!) at a 45 degree angle. The black lines mark where the 45 degree line is on my ruler.
Time to start hand sewing the binding down. You can start anywhere on the quilt, but not the corner. Really near the corner is ok though.
Fold down your binding and the excess batting together. If the batting is still sticking out, fold/poke it in. It should not show at all.
Here I have started to hand sew it down. Right handed people would be going in the other direction. My stitches are about 1/8" to 1/4" apart.
Keep on hand sewing it until you reach a few inches before a corner.
Now for left handed people, you need to pin the right side down first. For right handed people, you'll be sewing down the right side first, so it doesn't matter.
Then fold over the left side of the binding and hand stitch it all down.
See what a nice mitered corner I have? I took a a stitch on the left point, joined the corners of the binding, and then a stitch on the right side. (Be sure that you're also grabbing the backing of the quilt as you take all your stitches).
You also can see the distance I take my stitches on the side.
Now I really gotta go and finish my bread! I'll proof read later.
__________________
Leah - blessed to be married to a wonderful man and mama to Caleb, Logan & Josie.
How to put on a binding
First off... this is your friendly reminder that everything is left handed. Sometimes it doesn't matter so much, like in how to quilt the 9-patch. Sometimes it means that you'll be doing a 180 compare to the pictures, if you're right handed. If something isn't working out for you, try doing it the other way/direction.
To get started, you need 2.5 strips. I'm assuming they're about 40" long. You'll want 20 inches more than perimeter. So, let's say that your quilt is 50 inches on each side. That's 200 inches total. Plus 20 is 220 inches of binding. Divide that by 40, round it UP. 220/40 = 5.5. So we need 6 2.5" strips.
Now we need to make your strips one continuous piece. Take strip 1 and 2, and (either ends) overlap them as shown in the picture. You will be sewing diagonally. (I just eyeball it... but you're welcomed to mark it).
After you sew it diagonally (and no, I don't backstitch), you need to trim off the corner, and the "dog ears". You will trim it about 1/4" of an inch from the seam.
Then take the other end of strip 2 and add strip 3 in the same manner. Keep on doing this until you have one long strip. You can sew all the ends together, cut them, then iron. Saves time.
Now with each seam allowance, we need to iron them open. This will help distribute the bulk in the binding.
Fold it in half, wrong sides together and iron. Continue until you've ironed the entire piece to half of the starting width.
All ironed up! Also take a moment to make sure your ends are straight. Cut them if you need to.
Take the binding to your quilt now. Start on the middle of any side of the quilt. About 8" below the end of the binding (where it's pinned) is where you start to sew. Go ahead and let the end flap around, we'll deal with it after we sew most of the binding on.
Now start to sew down all the way to 1/4th of an inch BEFORE the corner. I don't bother to pin the binding in place. I just guide it in place as I sew. Occasionally I'll need a pin to help me control it, but generally it goes much faster without needing to pin.
Now we're at the corner. I stopped 1/4th of an inch before I reached the end of the quilt corner.
I have a notch on my foot that lets me know where the 1/4th mark is from the needle. You may need to place a pin or something. Just stop 1/4th of an inch before the end of the quilt. No need to backstitch here.
Now lift up your foot and pull the quilt about 2 inches away. Don't cut the thread!
Turn the quilt so you're facing the next side that needs to be sewn on.
Now lift up your binding so it forms a mitered fold. The strip is straight with the edge of the quilt that you will sew next.
Now fold the strip down. We're still keeping our mitered corner, it's just hidden. The fold needs to happen at the edge of the quilt, where we just sewed.
Now we're ready to start sewing the down on the next row. I usually start about 1 stitch above the fold of the binding.
Begin to sew down the next side of the binding, all away to the 1/4th of the next corner. Continue until all sides have been sewn.
But leave a foot-long gap between the binding's starting point (where you took your first stitch) and the end.
Here's the gap. Time to take the quilt off the machine. We're gonna join the binding now.
Make sure this spot is laying flat. Cutting mat, ironing board, all good flat spots. We want the strips to overlap each other.
The strips will need to overlap each other by the width of the strip. Remember how you cut your strips 2.5" wide? That's how much the binding ends need to overlap. If you made a 3" wide binding, then it needs to overlap by 3". I've marked the 2.5" spot with a pin.
Now we need to open the strips. I left the pin in the "top" binding piece (yellow) to mark the 2.5" spot. (We'll cut it later, but we need to make sure the measurement is correct).
We also need to make a diagonal line on the end of the purple binding. I ironed the mark in place, but you could pencil it, if you wished. (Honestly, I usually just "finger press" the mark in place and eyeball it as I sew it later. But I'm a lazy quilter. )
Bring the ends together, right sides together, at a right angle. See the arrow? It marks where the pin is, at the 2.5" overlap point.
Sew down the diagonal line you ironed. But don't cut any fabric yet.
We're going to straighten the binding to the side of the quilt. What you see above is "inside" the binding.
Does it lay nice a flat? Not too tight? Not too much? Good. Now we can cut the excess off. Just like how we trimmed the other diagonal lines at 1/4" from the seam, same thing here. Open the seam allowance and it's ready to sew on. (I finger press, but of course, you can iron. Did I say lazy?)
If it doesn't lay flat, or something is twist wrong... undo your stitches and try again. This is how both left and right handed people put the binding on, so don't try to mentally "flip" the images here.
Sew down the rest of the binding. Overlap the earlier ending point and the beginning, this will act as a "backstitch" to hold it secure.
Time to cut off the excess. To have a nice full and attractive binding, we will cut 1/2" away from the quilt edge.
So even if your sewing was a little wobbly, you can have a nice straight edge.
Here's the corner. We need to trim it away cuz it'll be too bulky otherwise.
Cut the corner (not the binding or quilt!) at a 45 degree angle. The black lines mark where the 45 degree line is on my ruler.
Time to start hand sewing the binding down. You can start anywhere on the quilt, but not the corner. Really near the corner is ok though.
Fold down your binding and the excess batting together. If the batting is still sticking out, fold/poke it in. It should not show at all.
Here I have started to hand sew it down. Right handed people would be going in the other direction. My stitches are about 1/8" to 1/4" apart.
Keep on hand sewing it until you reach a few inches before a corner.
Now for left handed people, you need to pin the right side down first. For right handed people, you'll be sewing down the right side first, so it doesn't matter.
Then fold over the left side of the binding and hand stitch it all down.
See what a nice mitered corner I have? I took a a stitch on the left point, joined the corners of the binding, and then a stitch on the right side. (Be sure that you're also grabbing the backing of the quilt as you take all your stitches).
You also can see the distance I take my stitches on the side.
Now I really gotta go and finish my bread! I'll proof read later.
__________________
Leah - blessed to be married to a wonderful man and mama to Caleb, Logan & Josie.