First you'll need to trim your quilt so that all four edges are straight and the corners are square. You can do this with scissors, or with a rotary cutter. I prefer to use a rotary cutter (with an old blade - batting is rough on rotary cutter blades) and my long (6 x 24) ruler for the sides and my brand new (THANKS GUYS!) big square ruler (mine is 12 x 12) for the corners.
***If you want to fold your backing over to create your binding - DON'T trim your quilt yet! Follow the 2nd Cluck Cluck Sew tutorial a little further down. It's an excellent tutorial.
You'll make your binding by cutting long strips of fabric (I cut mine 2.5" wide), stitching them together end to end, then folding it in half so that you have one raw edge and one folded edge. You'll then attach the long strip to your quilt, aligning the raw edges and connecting the two ends of your strip at the end. Then you'll fold over the binding and either hand stitch or machine stitch the folded edge to enclose all of your layers.
Here are some of my favorite tutorials for making and attaching quilt binding:
This is an EXCELLENT and very photo-rich tutorial for creating and attaching your binding:
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| Crazy Mom Quilts |
Here is a great tutorial for stitching your binding down by machine:
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| Cluck Cluck Sew |
This tutorial is great for stitching your binding down by hand:
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| Connecting Threads |
Here is the tutorial for using your quilt backing as your binding. Probably the easiest way to bind a quilt:
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| Cluck Cluck Sew |
And now for a few extras.
This is a very helpful tutorial for getting more precise binding (machine or hand) using Elmer's Glue:
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| Pile O Fabric |
Flanged binding is a fun way to add a little pop to your quilt:
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| Sew Fresh Quilts |
Raggy Binding is really fun for little kid quilts:
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| A Maiden Hair Fern |
And last but not least, don't forget to label your quilts! This is important because it helps you remember when/why/for whom/by whom a quilt was made. You might want to include a label if you a making a quilt as a gift for someone and you want them to remember who made it for them. You might want to include a label if there is something interesting about the quilt you want to remember (like "this was my first quilt," or "I tried curved piecing for the first time on this quilt," or "this quilt was inspired by a quilt my grandmother made"). And it's always a good idea to include the date you finished the quilt.
Here are my two favorite methods for making and attaching a quilt label to the back of my quilt.
This one is great for those times you remember to label your quilt before quilting it. :)
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| My Quilt Infatuation |
And this method works great for those of us who always forget the label until the last minute.
**TIP** Use fusible interfacing as your lining fabric for this tutorial. Stitch it to your label with the bumpy side FACING the right side of your fabric. Whjen you turn it right sides out, the bumpy side will be on the outside (the bumpy side is that part that will stick to your quilt when you iron it - keeping it in place while you hand stitch it down). Just make sure not to iron anything until you are actually fusing it to your quilt. :)
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| Quilty Pleasures |
And of course, here is the handout from our class:
WHW RS Sampler Quilt Class: Binding
Happy Stitching!
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