Originally Posted by
MommaDorian
Here are some pictures of the binding on my last little project. Plus, a picture of the back. You can see the puckers in this picture.
I'm just not happy with the binding. This is machine binding. I'd need a 1-1 lesson to learn to hand sew it.
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The pictures help a lot, but I have one more question - is the diagonal seam in photo # 1 where you join the ends of your binding? If so, it looks like you need some help there getting a tighter fit. Start with about 10 inches of binding left loose (don't sew it down) about a third of the way down a long edge of the quilt. Sew around the rest of the quilt and before you get to where you started, stop sewing with excess binding left loose. Take the quilt out of the machine and lay it on a table with the quilt away from you and the binding edge near. Pin the binding coming from the left to the edge of the quilt so it's as tight as it would be if you had sewn it. Take the right binding and lay it on top of the left one. Locate a point where they overlap (you need to be about 3-4 inches away from where it has been sewn) and mark both pieces. Trim the left one off at that mark and trim the right one PAST the point marked at a measurement that equals the size of your original cut for the binding. So, if you cut binding at 2.5 inches, then cut the binding off 2.5 inches past your mark. Now, move the quilt into your lap so the binding is at the top. Join the two binding strips at right angles to each other, right over left and sew a diagonal seam from the top left corner to the bottom right. Check to make sure it is tight enough and sewn in the right direction before you cut off the excess binding beyond your diagonal seam. Then finish your binding.
As to the sewing by machine front and back - I have NEVER mastered that and find that sewing by hand is sew much easier. I think it's called a ladder stitch, but not sure. Run a thread along the stitiching line that is from sewing the binding on the front by machine, and run it about a quarter of an inch. Where the thread comes out of the quilt, put it in directly across into the binding and run the thread in the fold of the binding about a quarter inch. Where it comes out, put it directly across into the quilt at the seam line and repeat till done! Corners? Well you just have to practice!