Brilliant Binding

I have given you a basic and very, very simple way of joining up the ends of your bindings... 
Now I have a different way for you. It may seem very fiddly at first, but the results are wonderful... it is worth persevering because no-one will be able to find your join with this method!!! There should be a 'printer friendly version here

1. You will need to leave good long tails at both the start and the end of your binding strips, the longer the tails the easier the join will be....

2. I recommend 5"... 8" will be perfect... this means that you will start sewing your binding on 5" - 8" down from the start... and finish sewing 5" - 8" before the join end..... thus leaving the tails as in this picture.

3 Pin the start of the binding in place and mark the end with a pin, then lay the other end on top of that and cut it 2 1/2" from the pin... exactly 2 1/2", not even a mouse's whisker more or less!!!

IMPORTANT TO NOTE......
these measurements are for 2 1/2" wide binding only...
IF your binding is only 2 1/4" wide you will trim a 2 1/4" distance... if your binding is 3" you will trim 3"... OK??

4. You can just about see here that there is a 2 1/2" overlap with the start and the end of the binding strip

5... you don't see it there? how about this?

6. Now lay the end of the binding open and flat on the table, my ruler is only there to hold the fabric down for my photo....

7. fold up the quilt to allow you to place the beginning end ON TOP diagonally, just like making a mitre... in fact it is another mytre!!

8.. holding with pins, draw a line from corner to corner....

9. sew it along the marked line... this is a fiddle, just fold your quilt a little bit to allow you to do this. take out the pins....

10. try to see whether it has worked perfectly before you cut anything!!!, if you need to adjust it , unpick the seam and do it again perfectly!.. then trim away the excess triangle... just as when you were joining the binding strips

11.. lay it all flat against the quilt edge and sew with walking foot!!!

That's all there is to it!

Tutorial for an Easy Quilt Binding

The double border : my favorite method!

Baby quilt

This is the method I find the best, and that I use every time I have to bind a quilt.

For a finished border of 8mm width, cut stripes of 5cm width. The length of the strip

will be equal to the perimeter of your quilt + 30cm (for the corners and the ending).

Put two strips perpendicular on each other, right side against right side :

Sew them diagonally :

Trim seam at 1/2cm

Open and press seam :

Fold the angle :

Cut a 1/2cm :

Fold the strip on the whole length :

To start, open the strip and sew it on the right side of the quilt,
 in the middle of one side, for about 7cm :

Then fold back the strip and sew it all along the quilt :

Stop at 1/2cm from the edge, cut the thread, 

turn and go on sewing as shown :

To stop and start again, I use the smallest stitch possible,

instead of a backstitch.

At the end, I push the end of the strip inside the place
left open at the beginning :

And I go on sewing, backstitch to stop.

It is not important if there is a little fold on the wrong side

as it does not appear on the right side :

To finish, I turn the border on the wrong side,

and sew it by hand.

Finshed border

I hope my explanations have been clear enough, and will have been of help for those who need. For the beginners, next time I will give some tips on how to hand sew this border on the back side.  

Have a great week-end. Greetings from me.

Christine

http://quiltingstories.blogspot.com/2014/03/Tutorial-for-easy-quilt-binding-baby-quilt-border.html

See Christine Feldstein's brilliant blog.