Okay, I cut my binding strips 2 1/2", sew them all together, and sew them onto the quilt. The problem is that when I pull the binding to the back of the quilt to hand stitch it, I HAVEN'T SEWN THE BINDING STRIPS COMPLETELY TO THE QUILT!! So on the front, I can see the batting and the edge of the quilt top... lovely. And so I go back and restitch it, which results in the binding being uneven.

I don't know how that happened, since I cut the batting/back so it was 1/4" from the quilt top. I then attached the binding at 1/2" - 3/8" (it varied :oops: ), but still, on one side I found 6 areas where I missed the quilt top.

I've seen a lot of threads talking about how to hand stitch the back, and that's the easy part for me. What I can't figure out is what I do wrong. This happens every time I do binding, and I don't know what's going on! :cry:

Any ideas on what the heck is going on??? I really want to keep doing the french binding method, rather than gluing it or faux binding methods.

Question part 2: I took a binding class awhile ago and the teacher said to cut 1/4" from your quilt top. Then you attach the binding 1/4" onto the quilt top (or 1/2" from the edge of the quilt). When I used to cut right to the quilt top and attach at 1/4", when I turned it over, I had a ridiculous amount of excess. So the teacher said if I do it with 1/2" on the top, then I won't get that excess when I turn it to the back (which did work).

But I'm thinking that's where my problem is showing up. Since if it's not perfectly straight, but I'm sewing on a straight line, then I'm picking up those exposed batting areas and voila, total mess. So I'm thinking that if I cut the binding strips smaller, and cut right to my quilt top, then I shouldn't run into the batting problem........

What do you all do???????

I square up my quilt having the backing, batting and top all the same (I don't make the backing/batting larger). I lay the raw edge of the binding right up to the raw edge of the quilt and sew 1/4". When you flip to the back to sew it down it should be fine. If you find you have excess when you flip it to the back then cut your binding strips 2 1/4" instead of 2 1/2".

Hope this helps.

I have never heard of the way the teacher told you - seems more complicated than it needs to be. I always have squared up the quilt/batting/backing and then sewn the binding to the edge. I do pin it like crazy because I have run into the same problem you did - skipped places on the backing... so frustrating... pinning, pinning and more pinning has greatly reduced my frustration!! :) I pin about every inch or so - helps alot.

I make sure that my top is square before quilting. I then attach the binding, lining it up with the edge of the top and stitch 1/4 inch from that. I don't pin just stitch slowly. Once the binding is on, I trim the batting/backing using the top as I guide. This way I never have to worry about missing a layer and my top was already squared so upon trimming everything else is to. Hope this helps

I'm not sure what the teacher was trying to tell you either, but if you have made sure the quilt is square and you put your binding even with the cut edge of the quilt, pin, pin, pin, and when you sew, try using the longest stitch you have and then check it. If it looks o.k. restitch using the normal stitch length and if not, you can easily remove the areas that need adjustment and not the area that looks right. I have to do this a few times and after I got used to binding, I could just attach the binding without the "practice" run.
Hang in there, you will get it. Pam

Laybugquilter,
Ditto...this is the way I do it as well -I find that it works like a charm...

I hate binding too, but mostly because it just isn't fun to me! There are wonderful tutorials out there that may clear things up for you. I like this one:
http://sometimescrafter.blogspot.com...rt-series.html

Hey - I LOVE doing bindings! send them to me!!!!

Check out this tut from Sharon Schamber - It's the ONLY way I do bindings :thumbup:

http://sharonschambernetwork.com/fre...gel/index.html