How to Close your Bindings

I have been quite remiss in my posting here... been doing a lot of posting on my Confessions of a Serial Quilter facebook page and have let this page go dormant.  I will try to do better in the coming year.  

That said, I've made a little tutorial on how I close my bindings, since that is an issue for many quilters who seem challenged by the task.  This method works with any width of binding, regardless of whether it's straight cut or bias, no special rulers or tools needed.

I start by leaving about 8-10" of the starting end of the binding loose... I cut this leading end of the binding square.  Sew the binding on by machine as usual.

Leave about 8-10" of the trailing end of the binding unsewn.  Overlap the two ends by EXACTLY the width of the binding, whatever your width is.  I use two rulers to do this.... one on top of the leading edge to use as a clear cutting surface, so I can see the end underneath it.  The other on top of the trailing end of the binding to cut off exactly what I need.

 

Turn the quilt so you are looking 'up' toward your open binding edges.  Open up the two ends...

 turn the right hand end over so the two pieces are right sides together and at a 90 degree angle.  Mark the upside down piece at a 45 degree angle for sewing your mitered seam.  I got lucky with this plaid piece - it had a perfectly marked print with a black line (coming out from under my thumb in this pic) but I usually 'mark' the seam line by folding the 45 degree angle, however you can mark it with a pencil as well.

I like to pin the two ends  to hold the 45 degree angle steady while I sew them together.

After sewing, I double check to make sure I didn't get a twist in the binding (that happened to me a few times before I got used to doing this method.).  Once you're sure there's no twist in the binding, you can trim the seam to 1/4" and your binding is now connected, with a mitered seam, and will EXACTLY fit the opening remaining to be sewn down.

Complete sewing the binding down by machine and then you can finish the other side either by hand or machine, your choice.

If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them, just write to me at jafoquilt at gmail dot com.