Binding Basics

hi I'm Cindy Cloward with Fraley Blake designs and I'm going to show you how to bind your quilt or project let's get started now it's very common to bind with the stripe so I have this fabric here as you can see the selvages you would never cut along the length of your fabric usually the stripe goes the wrong way and there's no give to this side and it it really wouldn't look good this is cross grain going across from selvage to selvage there is a little more give you would never use it on a quilt that has curves it's usually used if you want the stripes facing that direction it's also used for wall hanging quilts or quilts that don't have a lot of wear and tear the best way to bind a quilt is on the bias it's on 45-degree angle and look how much stretch it has if you have any kind of curves on your quilt edges you would need to cut your bias strips from the fabric like this and it gives you more strength because there's more fibers the fibers are crossed and so you have a lot more strength on the bias so if you have a high wear-and-tear quilt um you're gonna want to use this method [Music] I'm going to show you two different looks of binding so pretend this is a quilt this actually has been quilted with the top and bottom fabric with batting in the middle so you can get the general idea so this binding has been cut cross grain and you can kind of take a look and see how that would look fold it on your project it looks nice sometimes I like my stripes running that direction so this is binding cut on the bias and that's really nice too sometimes you just love a diagonal stripe so let's talk about cutting our binding fabric now so we'll pull this out here and I like to do two inches finding it makes a really tight nice binding the only time I make it larger to two and a half is if I have minke on the back and it's really fluffy and it needs a little more a little more binding on that so but if I have a cotton top and a cotton bottom I do two inches and it's just really easy to do it you get your ruler and you measure it up and you got your two strips now let's talk about cutting on the bias because you're getting that 45 degree angle now you can cut on the bias as small as a fat quarter but we have a little more fabric here so let's it's all about getting the longest edge on the 45 degree angle so see this this is on the bias and you're gonna I'm going to fold it over like this fold it over like this my first cut will be to cut off the edge that's folded so I'll put that away and since I'm kind of bright hand I'm going to cut it flip it over this direction and I'm cutting my two inches all right this is a small project so I probably just need two strips so first I'm going to show you how to connect your strips the ones that were cut on the Cross screen of course you always have to cut your selvages off sometimes that's easier to do before you cut your binding but we have them on now so I'm opening this up we always so right sides together and your make you're gonna cross these because you're going to sew diagonally so if you sewed it like this you'd have this really bulky seam right there so what we do is we cross it and we sew diagonally so you have a scene that doesn't fold on itself so there's less bulk so you cross so you're crossing your your two fabrics and you do that because you can't match it line it up and then when you fold it over they're gonna be misaligned so you need to offset it a little bit and so I usually mark it sometime you can get a good idea so you got this little V you're going to sew from V to V and it's always handy to have a little ruler and a pencil you can throw a pin in it real quickly to keep it in the right position as you go to the Machine and so okay let's take a look before I cut anything I check and make sure my binding looks all lined up and it does the stripes if it match so we can go ahead and see if my again always handy to have a little ruler and then you can finger press them open and then I do open a map put a little heat on there give it a good press like that and so now you can have a good visual of how nice that is not to have the binding straight across that the bulk is spread across like that so that is cross grain binding now you've got your binding on the bias so let's talk about that real fast it's been cut on an angle but the premise is still the same to how to seam these together so again you want it one continuous strip and you can't just flip it over like that you've got to sew from V to V so you kind of line it up like this again straight up right angles use your little measuring tool and note where the V is on that side and the V is on this side again you can always check yourself and flip it over but I'm confident that's where too so so let's take it to the machine now this has already been trimmed because it was already cut on the diagonal and you just check it that's just perfect open your seams take it over here to press open and now you're going to press your bias binding and you fold it in half I give it a good spray with starch and this is important to line your two edges up very important because what happens if you don't is you'll miss an edge when you're sewing and then it won't be tacked down so it's just important now what what's also important when you're ironing bias and I just caught myself doing it is not stretching it it's really easy to stretch it and then it gets out of shape and then it gets really hard to work with worth I guess I could stand in front of this iron again that's distributing that bolt by sewing it diagonally so you've got your bias on the diagonal so that's ready to go now let's do our cross grain and sometimes I really do love stripes facing this way so I make sure the project is not going to have a lot of wear and tear and sometimes it's fun to have stripes face straight and then a nice diagonal again I think stripes are the most popular bias binding because a lot of people like to cut stripes on my diagonal okay this is ready to go so the next step is putting your bias binding or your binding on your project so now I'm going to talk to you about how to sew your binding to your project so you've got your binding ready to go and you're not going to start in a corner and I use plenty of a tell you kind of leave probably four or five inches out I'm going to start sewing here and then I'm going to sew to the end I'm going to show you how to do a mitered corner now what you need to do is just measure 1/4 inch from the end and I marked it with a pin so let's take this to the Machine and sew to the corner now this is a good time I'm going to actually change my foot right here and I'm going to use my fourth inch seam guide foot so give me an accurate fourth inch so I'm just going to change that really quickly there we go we're just getting to the fourth inch so I kind of do it just a back stitch then I'm going to show you exactly how you're gonna do your mitered corner so you have your bias well it's actually not bias your binding and you've sewn to 1/4 inch to the end now you're going to take your binding and do your diagonal right across here and how you know you've folded it the correct way is this line is all the same then you're going to fold it back on itself not quite to the edge just a little bit away from it and finger press and you're ready to start sewing the next door direction the next side so let's take it to the Machine and finish our corners make sure that right there [Music] okay so I just finished sewing all my sides of my corners but notice I did leave a space open close to where I started because we're going to seam our two ends and we're going to do kind of an invisible seam so you won't notice where we started or stopped but before I do that I just check my binding make sure I got both sides we're sewn in it looks good I use a small set of scissors for this and I'm gonna cut right here I also need my ruler right here you're going to overlap your binding now you're not going to cut anymore till everything's measured so my bindings to inches and so I'm going to this I'm showing you how to do it so I'm kind of doing it upside down so I'm gonna clip through your strips like this just make a little tiny clip like that and then from that seam I'm gonna measure my two inches which is my binding I'm gonna mark it and that's where I'm going to cut the top I'm not going to cut the bottom there but see where I made that clip on the bottom I'm going to cut through on that so you've got an overlap of two inches which is the width of your binding it would be more if you add a two and a half inch binding so now I'm going to seam my last two pieces and of course you have to go right sides together and you don't have enough it's a little fiddly to work like this so I kind of bend this over and I put a pin in so I can have some work space to work on my binding so it's not fighting with me so I open this up and then right sides together I cross it a little like a V like this I'm going to give myself a little more work space right here by taking a couple of these stitches out so I can fold this over this is a little fiddly as you can tell I'm gonna cross those I'm going to take a pin like this and I'm going to show you right where to stitch now you can take a look right here and you're going to stitch corner to corner and I'm going to mark that so it's easy to see where to sew so I'm going to flip it around where it's easier for me to mark let's take it to the machine but before I do that I just make sure I'm on the right path and it looks like yep that's right what I need to so I still make quarter inch foot on but it's okay I can still use it to sew across make sure my bottom is fully flat and then use that line as my guide okay I'm going to take it back over and look like how that works just flattens out but now I'm going to cut the bulk out of that now so I'm going to take that open my seam distribute the book even more put it down there take it to the iron to press look how nice that looks now I'm going to just finish sewing from here to here so now I've sewn completely all around the quilt now the next thing I'm going to show you is how to finish the binding so now that you've got your two projects sewn with binding on them this one's bias binding and this one's cross green I'm going to show you how to finish now my favorite way to finish is to hand bind I love to do handwork and how I do that is I sew with a needle and thread now you need to decide which way you're going to do it before you start your project before you start your binding on because when you do your hand so you usually do it on the underside of your quilt so you that nice finished edge is on the top part of your quilt so your big design your big pieced quilt needs to be on the top and you're going to hand bind on the bottom it's just the opposite when your machine bind because generally you like to bind from the back and roll to the front because when you roll this over you have more control in sewing and you have a better line and it looks more finished if you bind you machine bind from the top so I've got my needle and thread because I'm ready to hand bind I'm gonna make a knot in the end real quickly you got your needle wrap your thread around and pull it to the end you've got a nice knot now you you can usually well generally you just high or not I start from the underside and I just kind of hide my knot now what is great about these new clips is you can tack down your binding before you even get started and you can go around the entire quilt so it's easier it holds down your binding notes just so and as you come to one of these you just take off the clips so I'm going to start near to a corner so you can see how I do my corners my minard corners so I've hidden my knot underneath and I'm coming up like this now when I do my binding by hand you advance your thread underneath the bindings so it's hidden so you're just going right next taking a little bite of fabric and then you come up so you don't see you advancing your thread along the top it's all hidden underneath so you take little teeny stitches and you see how you're just hand sew along this is easy because I can use my stitch length because I'm using white thread I can go almost to white to white so it gives me a good gauge of where I should be hand sewing almost I've got a little bit of pink that time and I think hand by Dana's it's one of my favorite things to do I can just sit in front of the TV and and it's just so relaxing plus it's just very exciting to put the finishing touch on your quilt and you have a lot of control when you hand bind so I'm getting to my corner so I'm going to miter the corner by folding it over so I take it like here and I fold over so you've got a nice mitered corner do you see that and I go up here and then I just tacked down that miter sometimes I even go up a little bit higher and come back down and you can really you have good control in your hand so and you can really hide your stitches now I'm going the other direction so that's how you hand by your your quilt and that would take a little while longer but I think the results are great so let's talk about machine binding so this is going to be the top of my quilt our project and why I love to use two inch strip binding is because I use my fourth inch foot it's already folded over and so when I pull this binding over you want to cover this top stitch right here the stitch from where where you adhered your binding so it's going to come over and cover and it fits perfectly right on the top of that and you can use pins or clips and kind of go around and on my mitered corners here I just kind of pivot around those so you're just making sure you tuck in all your loose ends and you're making sure that that stitch line is covered and I and a lot of times I don't pin so I can just go to the machine I'm trying out this foot like I said I generally don't machine bind but when I do I really like to use this foot and it has this fourth inch guide mark in the middle it's kind of a stitch in the ditch foot but it holds that binding right there to the edge and then I move my stitch over to the side so it's just top stitching right along there and it's keeping that guide of keeping that fabric right in position so let me just move over my stitch think about right there put my foot down and you can use an open toe foot that's perfectly fine but I like the control this gives me and I seem to have good results [Music] I'm gonna take a look and I'm using a little darker thread so you can just see the top stitch all along there so I'm going to get to the corner I'm gonna back stitch slightly because I need to miter this this is gonna be a little tricky you know tuck that in there we go got a couple little threads sticking out that's gonna go now I'm gonna pivot my machine [Music] okay so I'm just crossing where I started and I'm I just kind of do a slight back stitch and then just go forward clip my ends and hunt I bring it here and now we've finished we've finished sewing all around our binding and whether you like to hand sew or machine so now you know how to bind your quilt and project [Music]

Channel: Riley Blake Designs

Views: 38,271

Rating: 4.8495822 out of 5

Keywords: Easy Binding Tips, Quilt Binding, Binding, Binding Basics, How to bind a quilt, Bias binding

Id: ZF7kHFW1xtA

Length: 29min 52sec (1792 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 09 2018