Originally Posted by
Krisb
To finish your binding at 5/8"' cut it originally at 3". Fold in half and press; now it is 1.75". Sew to the front of the quilt with a 1/4" seam allowance; 1.25" left. Fold over to the stitching line on the back and sew it down and the finished width should be 5/8". You might actually want to cut at 3 1/4" to have a little to wrap around the edge.
3" cut in half is 1.5", not 1.75, but the rest of the numbers are correct.
The thing no one ever mentions, in any of the binding tutorials I've read, is that if you want a binding that is (for instance) 5/8" deep, you should sew 5/8" in from the edge of the quilt. That means, if you want a 1/4" seam in the binding, you are moving the edge of the binding in 3/8" from the edge of the quilt sandwich. If you don't do that your binding will still be 5/8" deep, but it will not be a full binding. Quilt show judges look for a full binding, but - more important - the quilt will wear better if the binding is full.