- Are you a beginner putting
on your first binding or maybe you just can't get the trick of sewing your binding strips on straight or maybe you can't get a crisp corner or maybe you don't know how
to connect them at the end. I have a number of tips, tricks and hacks to make this binding
process smoother and easier and get that last stitch knotted. So stick with me and I'll
show you how to do it. (digital music) Hi, I'm Karen Brown of
Just Get It Done Quilts. I give you tips, tricks and strategies to help you make the quilt
that you want to make. And if you like what you see please hit that subscribe button. I've shown you how to sew
straight and iron well. I've shown you how to
make the quilt sandwich and how to quilt it. And now it's time to put the binding on but first we need to trim your quilt up. The penultimate stage of
making a quilt is squaring up. Find a table or a
counter with a long edge, lift or fold your quilt so
that the weight is supported and not working against you. Line up your quilt along the edge with your cutting mat underneath it, grab either a right angle ruler, a square ruler or a laser square, decide on the line where you'd
like to sew your binding on and trim at a quarter of an inch. Now, unless you're making a show quilt squaring up is more of
a guideline than a rule. And often your edges are wonky. So squaring up like in other stages is much more of a negotiation. Remember my interview with Chris English I loved it when he said
that on his first quilt the corners were more of a suggestion. So as you were trying to decide if you're going to cut off
those points or cut around them just know that whatever you decide the quilt will still be warm and cuddly. This video is about the basics. So we are going to be making our binding the standard two and a half inches wide. Bindings can be narrower or wider but I'm going to cover
that in another video. Your binding should be the length of the circumference of your quilt. - [Karen] That's twice the
width plus twice the height plus two and a half inches
for the overlap at the end. Here is an example quilt. It's 80 inches high, but 60 inches wide. So I need a total length
of 282 and half inches for the binding. - And for two and a half inch binding you do not need to add anything extra for any of the corners. - [Karen] Quilting fabric is approximately 40 to 44 inches wide for this fabric after I've
deducted two and a half inches for the joints and removed the selvages that
leaves me with 39 inches. So for my example quilt, I needed a 282 and a half
inch strip for the binding. So I divide this by 39 and then round up. So that means this quilt,
I need eight strips. - You can use longer strips. You can use shorter strips. You can use scrappy strips. Just know that when you're
making your calculations - [Karen] that you'll
lose two and 1/2 inches in every joint. (gentle upbeat music) - When we were making the standard binding we sew them together at a 45 degree angle so that when they're folded and sewn on and then we fold them again,
they're a lot less bulky. If you've watched my video,
10 Sewing Hacks with Templates you know that I have a
three-in-one binding tool. I'll leave a link in the notes below so you can get the
directions to make your own. Take your first strip
and lay it right side up, take your second strip and lay it right-side down
perpendicular to your first one with the corners aligned. Take your tool and align
it to the horizontal strip with the point to the right and this line aligning with this edge. Mark a straight line with
a pencil or a marking pen on the 45 degree line,
pin along the marked line. If you are in a hurry, you
can simply fold it over make a crease, and you
don't need to use pins. But I find the binding strips
like to squirm around a lot. I find I get much better results sitting in front of my sewing machine and just getting into a rhythm of laying out, marking and sewing. I take the bundle to my iron. I snipped the pieces apart and I trimmed the joints with my scissors at roughly a quarter of an inch. This doesn't need to be exact. It doesn't even need to be straight because the seam is already sewn. And here I press the seams open again because I don't want that bulk. And I do not press these strips in half. And I'll explain why in the last step. (gentle upbeat music) When you sew your binding to your quilt you'll get a lot better results if you use a walking foot. This is the same walking foot that we use in the quilting phase. It keeps all the layers, the binding, the top,
the batting in the back moving through your
machine at the same rate, without it, you'll probably
find that your binding and your quilt are moving at a sink. And then this will happen. First, I'm going to show you two methods on how to start and stop sewing
your binding on the quilt. And then I'm going to show
you how to do the corners but first put your quilting
glove on your left hand as it's going to be so much easier to manipulate the way to the quilt. We are starting in the
middle of the bottom edge of your quilt. On the top of your quilt, lie your strip with the wrong side up, fold the corner down to the quilt edge then fold the whole strip to the edge side and sew to the top of your quilt. I find it easiest to fold
down the top edge, clip it and then fold the strip
down and clip that. Then sew around the quilt and when you get back to the bottom, you sew the binding on to this point and then trim the binding
on a 45 degree angle, and then just tuck it in. - [Karen] And if you need
to trim off a bit more to make it fit better, that's okay too. In this method, you start with a tail. So instead of starting to sew
in the middle of your bottom you start sewing
approximately 10 inches in. Once you have sewn around the quilt and you pass the last corner you'll want to stop at the
same spot on the other side. Take your quilt to a spot where your binding can lie perfectly flat. Mark where the two pieces of binding meet. Grab your three-in-one tool
and mark the other side this should be two and a half inches, trim in a straight line. Now, if you do not have
the three-in-one tool, you can use the tail of your binding or measure two and a
half inches with a ruler. - Now you want to be exact here. The first time I did this method, I gave myself an extra 1/16 thinking I needed the safety space. Don't do it. You'll just get a pucker if you do. So measure and cut accurately. - [Karen] Connecting these
tails is a bit fiddly the tail on your left
you flip open like this, the tail on the right
you flip towards you, then open and place them
perpendicular to each other with corner in the edges aligned. You'll need to shimmy in the quilt a bit to get them to line up. Then use the three-in-one tool
and mark the 45 degree line. I always pin the corner and just test to be sure that I have not
twisted the binding before I sew. Sew the diagonal on the binding then trim. I use my roller here to press and save myself a trip to the iron. Then I sew between the
start and the stop points. - Corners stress out many quilters, but it's really not that hard. You just need to understand
what's happening to the fabric in that corner. And my three-in-one tool
makes it much easier. As you approach your corner, you need to stop at a quarter
of an inch from the end. Then you fold your binding
at a 45 degree angle then fold it back down. Turn your quilt and sew
a quarter of an inch along the next edge. So why is it so difficult to get the perfect corner you need? This seam and the full line and this seam need to intersect exactly. So if you're a quarter of an inches off or the folding your fabric
is off that crisp corner is just not going to happen. So first, you've got to
make sure that you stop at the right spot. Your presser foot might have
a quarter of an inch mark or use a ruler or put a mark on your
three-in-one tool and use that. And second, not only do you
need the top layer of fabric folding over on a 45 degree but you also need the
inside layer of fabric folding over on the 45 degree. So this is my process. I sewed to the quarter inch mark and then back stitch two stitches. I take my three-in-one tool
and I lay it on my binding with the point in the corner. I fold the fabric over tight
to the edge of the tool, then I pull the tool out,
place it in the corner and fold the fabric over and clip. And then clip it in several
spots along the next edge, then I pull the tool out, then I turned the quilt and I
sew at a quarter of an inch. - [Karen] This will give
you nice sharp corners, both on the front and the back. - Hand sewing a binding does take time but it really gives that
homemade finish to your quilt. You need a thimble and a needle. I like to use sharps
between size 10 and size 12 depending on what thread I'm using. Your thread shouldn't be overly long. And I like to use 50 weight thread or higher in a matching colour. I use a double strand and I
tie it with a quilters knot. Choose a side. It doesn't matter where you start and bury your thread
in the seam allowance. Then roll the fabric over and attach with an invisible stitch. Now remember we didn't
fold the binding in half. The binding needs to roll over twice, once at the same and once
over the edge of the quilt. So the fabric on the bottom
used to be a little bit shorter than the fabric on the
top for a smooth finish. And if you have a sharp fold there, you will be fighting
it the whole way round. Some quilters use clips
to roll the binding over and do some of the work for you. You can get the job done with four and keep moving them down the side, or you can clip the whole
quilt ahead of time. You do the corners on the back, very similar to how you
do them on the front. You fold that fabric
to get a nice crisp 45. And if you're having any difficulty, use your three-in-one tool and just keep going. And listen to a couple of
episodes of Karen's Quilt Circle until you get back to the beginning and to finish you make
another quilters knot, then you bury it underneath the binding. And you're done. Just one more thing. My biggest problem, when I
am hand sewing is clenching. I clench my shoulders. I clench my hands, so I
have to stop occasionally and just breathe and let it all go. There'll be at least one
more video in this series as I still need the cover
sewing machine binding narrow and wide binding. And of course, how to put
a label on your quilt. So stay tuned. I am just finishing off the first week in my January Declutter Challenge. If you would like to join in, head over to my blog and jump in. Last week, we handled paper and garbage. We also shared photos
of our crazy mistakes our hah moments and the space
we are creating for 2021 on the Facebook event
page and on Instagram with the #jgidqDeclutter2021. I'll leave a link in the notes below. And last week, my interview
with Mary Fons went live. Her experience and talents
make her the perfect person to have a chat about quilting and legacy. I'll leave a link to
that in the notes below. So if you liked this video,
please give it a thumbs up and don't forget to
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at justgetitdonequilts.com So take care and I'll see you next time
