Quilting Binding Tutorial – by Machine!

I while back I posted a quilting binding tutorial which is the way I have been binding quilts for as long as I have quilted.  My method of quilt binding was effective, but does involve a significant amount of hand stitching.  I was cruising around on etsy and came across a Pat Sloan tutorial for binding that is completely done by machine.  I have tried other methods in the past that are completely done by machine, but none have been as successful or have had the look that I want.

As in my first tutorial, I still use a double binding which is 2 1/2″ strips cut and sewed together on the diagonal.  Then, pressed lengthwise wrong side together in half to make one long binding piece.  This piece is 1 1/4″ wide when doubled over as shown below.

Here’s the difference….sew this binding to the back side of your quilt instead of the front side.

 Make sure you leave a 10″ tail at least where you start so that you have enough to finish it off just right.

When you come all the way around, make sure you leave about 10″ of loose binding on either edge.  Overlap your binding and measure an overlap the total width of your binding when opened up.  In this case, measure an overlap of 2 1/2 inches.  Cut off any excess beyond the overlap.

Open up your binding and sew right sides together using a diagonal across the intersecting sections.  This is tricky and why you want to give yourself plenty of binding that is not attached to the quilt.  Cut off the excess so that you leave a 1/4″ seam.  Fold your binding back up, align it with the edge and finish sewing it onto the back of the quilt.

Set your machine to a blanket stitch with a stitch length of 3.5 and a stitch width of 3.6 (or close to it).

Make sure you change to a wider foot to avoid breaking the needle here.

The only thing that is not shown below is that you will want to flip your blanket stitch so that the legs of the stitch go to the right instead of the left.

Flip your quilt over and pull your binding to the front of the quilt just to the edge of the stitch line created by attaching the binding on the back side.  Line up your foot so that the needle is going right along the same stitch line or really close.  Start stitching from one corner to the next with a blanket stitch.  The vertical portion of your stitch should either stitch right in the ditch or really close and the legs of the stitch shall catch the binding.

Here’s what it looks like on the front of the quilt.

Here’s what it looks like on the back side of the quilt.

Here’s what a corner looks like.

I love the over all look…it is super clean looking and I think much more durable than the hand stitching.  Plus, it is much quicker.

The actual quilt that is shown here is my Swoon quilt which you can see more of on this post.

I always like to try out new techniques….this one is worth a try!

Head on over to my etsy store …there is a bunch of new stuff for sale!  And, head on over to my facebook page to follow my progress on other projects.