Four's a Charm - Let's Stitch the Binding

Ready for the final post in the Four's a Charm series? We're so close to having a finished quilt I can taste it!

When we left off in the last post, we had just finished attaching the binding to the baby quilt. Now we're going to get out a needle and thread and start hand sewing the binding to the back of the quilt. Please note that this tutorial is the method I use for hand sewing the binding, but it is by no means the only method, nor is it necessarily the fastest. I love the results, though.

Getting Started
The very first thing we're going to do before we start hand sewing is iron the binding down flat. With the quilt facing right side up, fold the binding up and away from the quilt and press it flat.  Use the tip of your iron to get into the seam to make sure the binding is completely pressed outward.

Stop pressing about 1.5"  to 2" from the mitered corners.

Now we're ready to start hand sewing. Here's what we're going to need to hand sew our binding - scissors, cotton thread, and a needle.

Select a thread that matches the color of the quilt binding. I'm just going to use the same gray Aurifil thread I used to do the machine quilting because it will blend in pretty well with my multicolored binding fabric.
 
Thread your needle with a nice long strand of thread. I tend to make mine ridiculously long because I hate having to stop a bunch of times and knot off, re-thread, and start again. The down side to a very long thread strand is that it tends to knot and twist the longer you sew. Keep this in mind and choose the lesser of two evils. By the way, I've heard that using hand sewing cotton quilting thread helps prevent the twisting/knotting phenomenon, although I've never tried it myself.

Once your needle is threaded, pull one strand longer than the other. Do not knot the thread.

Tie On and Start Stitching
Pick a spot somewhere on the back side of your quilt - preferably near the center of any side - to start sewing (avoid starting really close to a mitered corner).

Insert the needle into the fabric just below the machine stitching (where you attached your binding to the front side of the quilt). Pull the needle through until you have a small tail of a single strand of thread about 4" long. Bring the needle back into the spot where you started. Pull it through again until you've made a loop with the thread. Bring your needle through the loop several times and pull tight to make a knot. Okay, now we're ready to sew!

For some unknown reason, I didn't take photos of this step. Ugh! However, if you need a visual aid, check out the section below where I show you how to start a new strand of thread.

Don't worry about the thread tail - we'll deal with that at the very end.

Use your hands to fold over the binding so that folded edge of the binding sits below the machine stitching. Insert the needle into the fold directly above the point where you just made the knot.

Bring the needle out about 1/4" (or less) from where you inserted it into the binding. Pull the thread through. Insert the needle into the quilt sandwich at exactly the point where you exited the binding. You want your needle to go through the quilt backing and a bit of the batting, but not all the way through to the quilt top. Use the machine stitching as your guide - always insert your needle below that stitch line.

Make your stitch about 1/4" long. Pull the thread tight.

Tip: Use your non-dominant hand to keep the thread taut as you pull the needle through the fabric. This will help prevent annoying knots and tangles.

Insert the needle into the binding fold again, just above where you just pulled the needle out of the quilt sandwich. Repeat the steps above and continue until you get to a mitered corner.

FYI, what we're doing is called a ladder stitch, and while it takes a bit longer to sew the binding this way, the stitching is nearly invisible. A perfectionist's dream!

The Mitered Corners
Ready to sew a mitered corner? It sounds far worse than it really is.

Keep sewing according to the directions above until you get to the corner.

Flatten the mitered corner out with your hand, then fold it down.

wow, do I ever need a manicure!

Insert your needle into the point where the two sides meet and take the needle through to the front of the quilt, making sure that the needle enters the front at the corner of the miter.

Whip stitch up to the top of the miter.

Bring the needle back through to the back of the miter when you get to the top, then whip stitch back down on the other side.

Now continue with the ladder binding method again, starting as close to the corner as possible.

That wasn't so bad, right?

Knotting Off
Sadly, there's no way you'll have enough thread on your needle to make it all the way around the quilt. You'll have to stop and start again at least once. You usually know when it's time to knot off and start again when find your needle keeps coming unthreaded.

Here's how to stop and start again:

Sew a stitch in the binding fold, then put your needle into the quilt sandwich below.

Make just a very small stitch, then loop back around into the same stitch to make a circle with your thread. Bring the needle through the loop a couple of times and pull it tight to make a knot.

Pull the needle off the thread. Leave the tail for later.

Thread your needle again, and just like when we started, do not tie a knot in the thread. Bring the needle into the quilt sandwich just below the machine stitching line right next to the knot you just made. Leave a 4" tail, then bring your needle into the sandwich at the same spot again and bring it almost all the way through until you've create a medium sized loop. Bring the needle through the thread several times then pull tight to make a knot.

I've made a loop (in my left hand) and now I'm going to bring the needle through it several times to create a knot.

Continue hand sewing the binding until you've made it all the way around the quilt, then knot off your thread using the same method as above.

Bury the Thread Tails
Our last step is to bury the thread tails we've left along the way.

While it's probably overkill, I like to take each pair of thread tails and double knot them.

To bury the threads, start by hold a pair of threads at the same time and give them a clean snip with your scissors so that they are both the same length.

Thread both ends through the eye of your needle. If you can't get both into the eye, simply do one thread at a time.

Bring the needle in through the binding, pushing it in an inch or two, then bring the needle back out in a discreet location (like just under the fold of the binding). Snip the threads with scissors. Viola! Your threads are buried :)

Bring the threads into the binding directly above the knot, then bring the needle out about 1" to 2" away from the point of entry.

Pulling the threads through

Snip the remaining thread tails and you're done.

Repeat these steps with the remaining thread pairs.

Congratulations! Your quilt is finished!! Thanks for following along the Four's a Charm series :)

-Annik

P.S. Make sure you wash it and dry it before you put a baby on or under the quilt since the unwashed fabrics contain chemicals that may irritate a baby's skin.

Four's a Charm - let's bind the quilt

Woohoo! We're almost done with our Four's a Charm baby quilt! In this installment we're going to cover making binding and sewing it on to the quilt. Hand sewing the binding will be the last installment (coming soon).

Our first task is to trim off the excess batting and backing around the quilt top. Use a rotary cutter and long ruler, as I'm doing here in this photo, or trim down the quilt the old fashioned way with a pair of scissors.

Once you've trimmed the quilt on all four sides, it should look like this:

Cutting and Joining the Binding Strips
Time to make our binding (yardage is listed in the first post of this series).

You have two options when it comes to cutting binding strips. The first option is to cut your binding strips along the width of the fabric (WOF). This is very simple and fast and is the method I typically use. The second method is to cut your binding along the bias. I opted to cut my binding on the bias because I love the way it looks with the stripey scarf print from the Sherbet Pips collection. If you're interested in this method, here's a link to my continuous bias tutorial. If not, read on.

For the WOF strip method, the first thing you need to do is determine the number of strips to cut. Our trimmed quilt is 40" square. 40" x 4 sides = 160" plus we need extra length for seam allowance and for making our mitered corners. Measure the width of your binding fabric, not including the selvedges. If it's less than 43", you'll need to cut 5 WOF strips (or 4 and 1/2). If it's more than 43" wide you can get away with only 4 strips.

To make WOF binding, use your rotary blade a long ruler to cut four or five WOF x 2.5" strips. I personally prefer to cut my binding strips to 2.25", but if you've never bound a quilt before I suggest you use the wider measurement.

Cut the selvedges off of both ends of all of the binding strips.

Place one strip right side up in a horizontal position.

This is some espresso brown binding I've already cut for another quilt. I won't be using this on my Four's a Charm quilt!

Place another strip face down (right sides facing) in the vertical position so that the corners match up.

Use your ruler and a pencil to mark a diagonal line from the bottom left to the top right of the overlapping fabric.

 Place a pin on each side of the mark, leaving enough room to sew your seam.

Sew along the marked line.

Repeat these steps until all the binding strips are joined together.

Use your ruler and rotary cutter to trim away all but 1/4" from each seam.

Press the seams open.

Finally, press the binding in half lengthwise, wrong sides facing.

Attaching the Binding
Now it's time to attach the binding to the quilt. Thread your machine with thread that matches the binding or something neutral. I'm using the same gray I used to do the free motion quilting. Attach your 1/4" piecing foot if you have one, otherwise, use the 1/4" measurement on your foot plate as your guide.

Tip: I simply love my "O" foot for my Janome. It's a 1/4" piecing foot and it has little markings at 1/4" before and after the needle. These markings are extremely helpful when sewing on binding as you'll see shortly. Don't have the same markings on your foot? You might want to consider marking these measurements with a Sharpie marker, or simply keep a ruler handy.

Starting at approximately the center of the bottom edge of the quilt, line up the raw edges of the binding against the right side of the quilt. Leave a tail of about 6-8" then start sewing on the binding using a 1/4" seam allowance. Reinforce your stitches when you start so they don't rip out as you're maneuvering around the quilt.

Leave a tail

Sewing on the binding

I use my right hand to guide the binding strip and my left hand to hold it all in place (gently!) so I don't have to pin anything.

Mitering the Corners
Stop sewing when you you're 1/4" from the edge of the quilt top edge. This is where I used the marking on my foot for a reference. I place a left fingertip on the spot where the quilt top ends underneath the binding and as soon as my thumbnail lines up with marking I stop sewing.

Stop sewing 1/4" from the edge of the quilt

 Backstitch to reinforce the seam then cut the threads.

Fold the binding up away from the quilt. The right edge of the binding should line up exactly with the right edge of the quilt.

Fold the binding back down so that the folded edge lines up perfectly with the top edge of the quilt.

Bring the folded end under the needle of your machine. Start sewing again 1/4" away from the top edge. Reinforce the seam.

For reference, your corners should look like this when you're done:

right side

left side

center view

Continue sewing the binding on and repeat the miter method on the other three corners.

Stop sewing about 8-10" away from the spot where you started sewing the binding down to the quilt. Reinforce your stitches then cut the threads. Leave a nice long tail of about 8-10" of binding.

Joining the Binding
The instructions below are what I consider to be the easiest way to join the binding ends. It's not the best, though, because it leaves a bumpy spot at the seam. It's best to join the ends on the diagonal like you did the other strips. There's a link to a YouTube video on this method at the end of this tutorial so don't feel obligated to use my method.

Somewhere near the middle of the open space between the two binding ends, butt the binding strips up against each other so that one end is flat and the other end is folded over.

Measure 1/4" from the fold.

Make a straight cut across at 1/4" from the fold (or slightly more, like 3/8"). You might expect to cut it 1/2" from the cut, leaving you with 1/4" seam allowance at both ends, but I find that the binding stretches out a bit as you sew this bit down, leaving you with some bunching at the end of the open section. Making the binding length a little shorter than the opening on the quilt remedies this problem.

Open up the pressed binding on each end. Line them up, right sides facing, and pin.

Sew a 1/4" seam across. You'll have to bend and maneuver the quilt a bit to get the binding under the sewing machine's needle.

Finger press the seam open.

With the seam open, fold the binding back in half. Line it up with the edge of the quilt. Sew the remaining stretch down using a 1/4" seam. Remember to reinforce the stitches at each end.

Check it out!

This is a good stopping point. In the last post of the series I'll cover hand sewing the binding to the back of the quilt.

Here's the Youtube video I promised earlier. I really like this method and plan to use it on my next quilt:

Thanks for sewing along with me. I'd love to hear your comments/questions if you have any.

-Annik