Quilting - Mitered Corner Binding Instructions
Part Two - Attaching Mitered Corner Binding
As a continuation of Part One where we made the Quilting Binding strip, the following is how we now attach the binding strip to the quilt.
When attaching the binding strip, which has been folded and ironed in half, you will be placing the raw edges of the binding strip towards the raw edges of the quilt. The folded edge will be away from the edge. You will note in the following picture my finger is between the layers of the binding strip, this is to show that it is the raw edge side of binding strip being placed at the raw edge of the quilt.
In the next picture you will see the binding strip up against the edge of the quilt.. Now we need to have a bit of discussion as to where in that side to place the binding strip.
Because this will also be the side where we will finish the binding after attaching the binding all around the quilt, we need to make room for the finishing seam which joins the two ends together.
At this point, I figure out where the center of that side of the quilt is, just eyeballing it. I don't do any heavy measuring. This is where I lay the end of the Binding Strip, with the raw edges of the Binding strip lined up with the raw edge of the quilt. But I do not pin it down. Why? because you need that loose Binding strip tail that is not attached to the quilt to sew the ends together at the end of attaching the Binding strip. You wouldn't be able to do that if you had sewn the tail down.
So I will repeat put the end of the binding strip about center of the side of the quilt you are starting on. Then visually figure out what point is halfway between the center of the quilt and the corner of the quilt, for me that is about quarter way up from the corner. This is where you start pinning the Binding strip to the quilt, this is also where you will start sewing your Binding strip to your quilt. You start sewing where the first pin is.
You will note in the pictures you don't see my pins, because I do not pin, I have been sewing for around 44 years and don't pin very much. you pin or don't pin as you see fit. It's your call on that.
In this picture you will see that I have placed the quilt and binding strip in place under the presser foot of my machine. My hand is holding the tail of the binding strip that is not going to be sewn down, just so you can see how much I left unsewn.
Start sewing towards corner with a 1/4" seam allowance.
Stop your machine with needle down a couple inches from the corner. We need to mark our binding a 1/4" from the end of that side of the quilt. This is where we will stop sewing. We do not sew off the end. We need the room to make our mitered corner.
In the following picture you will see me use the 6.5x6.5 square up ruler to mark the binding. That mark will be where I will stop sewing. [There isn't any quilt police you can use anything you have to measure 1/4" from the edge of the quilt, you don't have to use the same ruler that I did]
Once marked continue your sewing down to that mark and stop.
Once you have made your locking stitch remove your quilt from under the presser foot, so we can make the mitered corner.
Taking the tail of the binding strip and pull it straight up above the side you just sewed. As in the picture below.
Make sure that the binding strip is straight up and even with the side of the quilt you are going to sew down next. [See picture below]
Once you have the binding strip straight up, finger press the diagonal fold made. [see picture below]
[ Yes I have a cut on my finger and it looks a bit messy as I was still bleeding when I put the super glue on it, sorry. I didn't cut my finger sewing, I cut it while dicing veggies for soup.]
Now you have the binding strip straight up and the diagonal fold finger pressed, bring the binding strip straight down. Creating a fold right at the top edge of the quilt where you see my finger in the below picture.
Line up the binding strip raw edges with the quilt raw edges.
Place your quilt and binding back under the presser foot of your machine. You will start sewing on the top edge where the fold is [where my finger was in the last picture]. You will not start 1/4" down, you will start sewing at the edge, and a 1/4' from the right side. Creating you a 1/4" seam allowance as you sew down that side.
Repeat these instructions to sew and make your mitered corners for the other three sides, coming to the last side of the quilt, which is also the side we started on.
After making the 4th mitered corner, and would begin sewing down the last side, STOP and visually figure out what would be the point to stop your sewing. This point to stop should be about a quarter of the way down that side of the quilt. at "minimum" you will stop sewing once you get pasted the mitered corner you just made. Sew from the top edge down to that quarter mark.
When you have sewn to that quarter mark of the quilt. backstitch to secure stitching, in preparation to do the final seam of the binding attachment. Remove quilt from presser foot on your machine.
We will now do the finishing work to finish off the binding attachment.
Right now you have two tails of the binding strip loose on one side of the quilt. [The same side that you started attaching the binding strip.] According to how big your quilt is, will be how much of a gap you will have between the two ends of the Binding strip, and how much room you will have to sew these binding strips together.
I had you stop sewing a quarter of the length of the quilt, from the last mitered corner, and the beginning strip is about a quarter of the way from the opposite corner of the quilt. This leaves a lot of room to work if you're doing a full size quilt or larger. In smaller quilts or table toppers or runners, or mug rugs etc you will have very little room to maneuver. So at this point you need to be careful how far you sew down because you want plenty of room to sew your binding together.
Lay your quilt horizontally in front of yourself with the binding tails to the right and left sides of center, NOT laying it with it going away from you. Fold the two Binding strips back towards the corners as in the picture below.
Once you have trimmed the right hand binding strip, lay and smooth down your left hand binding strip over the top of the right hand binding strip.
Now we need to have a discussion so this next part is understood better...
We are going to trim the left Binding strip so when it is sewn to the right Binding strip it will lay perfectly without having to rip it and redo it again..
Your binding strip is 3" wide if you used my size binding, or 2.5" if you used the "standard" size binding. But there isn't any quilt police so what ever size you chose is how wide your binding strip is "Before" you folded it in half and pressed it. And this is how much overlap we will need to trim the Left binding strip to.
BUT there is an easy way for it to be perfect with out measuring and marking. Take the end of your Left Binding strip, unfold it and lay it underneath the right hand side binding strip, as you see in the picture below.
Then lay your left binding strip over the top of the Right Binding strip [which is laying over the unfolded binding strip tail.]
With your left Binding strip laying over the right Binding strip and unfolded Binding tail. Take a ruler and make a clear mark across the Left Binding Strip, following the edge of the unfolded Binding strip tail. See picture below.
As you see in the below picture, you now see the mark you made on the Left Binding strip. [The left Binding strip is laying over the Right binding strip and the unfolded Binding strip tail.]
Now here is the scary part!! Don't freak out and panic... It scared me the first time, but I promise you that this will come out perfect, pull up the boot straps and trust this will be ok!!! ha ha ha
Ok now we take our scissors and we are going to cut on that line we just made on the Left Binding Strip. All the way across, removing the extra binding that will no longer be needed.
In the picture below you will see me cutting with scissors on the marked line across the Left Binding strip. ONLY THE LEFT BINDING STRIP!!! Not Both binding strips.. ONLY the left binding strip!! Got that??? ha ha
Ok now pull the Binding Strip tail and the extra leftover binding strip away so you now just have the left and right Binding strips that have been trimmed to the perfect size.
Now time for another discussion, we are going to have to sew those two Binding strips together and you have this expanse of quilted fabric that is sandwiched with batting and batting, that the Binding strips are sewn to. This expanse of fabric makes it hard with just two hands to hold everything together when the quilted sandwich is wanting to lay flat. SO what we do is we take an make a fold in the quilted sandwich, and put a pin in it so that the two Binding strip ends are closer together so we can pin them. With the quilted sandwich folded/pleated and pinned it no longer is pulling your two binding strips away from each other.
In the picture below you will see that I pleated or folded the sandwich and put a pin in it to hold it.
In the next picture you can see I turned the quilted sandwich so you can see that I have folded/pleated and pinned the fabric quite a bit to close the gap between the two Binding strips.
This is not going to be sewn this way, it is only pinned that way temporarily to help us sew the strips together. you only do this when your side of the quilt is large, if it is a smaller quilt or table runner or mug rug you may not need to do this to help you.
There is no quilting police, so you don't have to do this but I find it helpful.
Now you should have a easier time putting the ends of your Binding Strips together.
What we are going to do next is put our two Binding strip ends together. We will be putting them together Right Sides together, and sewing a diagonal seam across them. This is the same technique as when we sewed our binding strips together to make one long continuous Binding strip for the quilt in Part one of this blog post.
Take your two Binding strips, Opening them up so the full width is flat. Placing the Right Binding strip tail across the Left Binding strip tail end. You will place them right sides together.
You will place your Right Binding strip's end even with the side of the unfolded Left Binding strip. Then you will move the Right Binding strip so the side edge is even with the end of the Left Binding tail. [see picture below]
Note: How do you know which side is the "Right" sides for the "right sides together"? Remember you pressed your Binding strip in half with the "Right" side on the outside and wrong side was inside the fold? Ok when you unfold the Binding strip you are going to place the pointed fold side against the pointed fold side of the other strip. So on the outside you will see the valley of the fold [wrong side] when these are pinned together. Notice the valley of the fold in the picture below.
Once you have your two Binding Strip ends lined up, I pin in four places just to hold them. You may not pin, your choice. In the picture below you see where I pin mine.
Also I do not mark the diagonal line from corner to corner because I have the "Sew Easy" guide that guides me, but you may wish to mark it so you can sew a straight line.
Again you may wish to draw a line from the upper left corner to the bottom right corner, but as you see in the following picture my "Sew Easy" guide shows me where I should be sewing.
Sew diagonally from point to point.
This following picture shows my seam line. Remove pins.
Once the pins are removed straighten out your binding to see if it is "Perfect". Everytime I use this method it comes out perfect with no extra bulge because it is too long.. or buckle because it is too short. It is alway perfect. [see photo below]
Reopen the Binding Strip so you can trim the excess fabric off the corner.
In the following picture you see that I cut off the excess fabric. I cut 1/4" away from the sewn seam, giving it a 1/4" seam allowance. You can do this with a rotary cutter and ruler, or with a pair of scissors.
Refold your Binding strip and straighten so it lays flat. Align the Binding strip raw edge to the raw edge of the quilt. Sew, starting a couple stitches before where you stopped sewing earlier and continue stitching until you have sewn a few stitches past where you started sewing originally.
Ta Dah!!! Your binding is attached!!! Now to finish this.
In the video's they tell you flip it to the back and sew it down.. They don't tell you how to make those mitered corners lay right and flat.
Discussion time again... In the following picture you are looking at one of the just finished mitered corners, and where you had folded the diagonal fold then sewn the binding to the next side is pulled open a bit. That part that is sticking up is now going to be pulled to the back. As well as the sides will be pulled to the back.
Points you need to ponder or remember; you will be dividing that Binding strip in half, not literally. But you will be distributing half the Binding strip to be on the front and half the Binding strip to the back. So when you fold it over, if you kinda squeeze your fingers on both sides of the quilt you can "Feel" where the seam is that you just sewed the Binding strip to the quilt. You will line your folded edge of Binding up with where you "feel" the seam on the front side. Doesn't have to be exact but close. Other wise your binding will be skinny on one side and too wide on the other.
Ok back to what we are doing.
Fold Binding towards the back of quilt.
Once you start folding it to the back you will see the perfect mitered corner on the front. [see picture]
Turn the quilt over and now you will be working on the back side. "Feel" for the seam where you sewed your binding on, or look and see if you can see your sewn seam. That is where you want to fold your Binding to, so both sides of quilt will have the Binding evenly distributed.
NOW here is the Trick they don't tell you about.... Fold the LEFT side over First!! ALWAYS Fold the Left side of the binding First!!! Got that??? Left <<<< that way... ha ha
It makes all the difference when you fold that mitered corner. Ok fold left side first then fold right side over it.
TA DAH!!! Perfect mitered corner!!! Everytime!!! Pin or clip in place to hand sew on the back side.
Last discussion; Hand sew back side, machine sew back side.... I personally Machine sew the binding to the Front of the quilt, turn Binding to the back and hand sew the back Binding to finish. BUT... there are no quilt police, you want to machine sew the Binding to the back, flip to the front, and hand sew to front... go for it. If you want to machine sew on one side fold over to other side and machine sew it to finish it.. so be it go for it.. all are your choices to make and none are wrong.
Have fun, hoped this helped.
Happy Sewing
Becky
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