Ordinarily, I attach my binding to the right side of the project, turn the edge to the back side, pin under the seam allowance, and then hand stitch. But on this project, I wanted to machine stitch from the top (using my new red/white/blue varigated thread) and catch the seam allowance with a decorative stitch. In doing this in the past, there always seemed to be places where the seam allowance poked out and didn't stay where I had pinned regardless of how many pins I used. Then I had to rip and restitch.
Somehow, recently, I stitched my binding to the back side by mistake. I scolded myself for my dumb error. Rather than rip, I decided to reverse my practice, pin on the right side and continue with my decorative stitch from the right side. It turned out great!!! No more poking, ripping, restitching.
Needless to say, I will continue to do my machine-stitched binding in my newly found manner.
Suzanne