When I first started quilting ..... many years ago ..... I made baby quilts for my nephew and a few years later my niece. These quilts were hand pieced and I did sew the binding down by hand. They were well used quilts and back then my sister was a cleaning fanatic so those quilts were washed often. The quilts are now 32 and 27 years old .... I can tell you that the binding is still going strong.