Originally Posted by
Mkotch
I was careful to square up a recently quilted baby quilt before adding the binding. I was also careful not to stretch the binding as I sewed it on. But now with the binding on and sewn on both sides, the edges of the quilt ripple. Does this mean I need to "block" the quilt? (I'm not sure how to do this) Should I add more quilting to the outer border? What will flatten it?
Was it bias binding? Or straight grain binding? And, did you use a walking foot? If no walking foot, was the quilt next to the feed dogs and the binding on top? By wavy edges, do you mean the binding is wavy?
I agree with other posters. I do think your comment about being careful not to stretch the binding might be the problem. I do not sew binding on with a walking foot, and I sew with the binding on top, but I am careful to *stretch* the binding taut as I sew, lay it on the quilt edge, then finger pin them together about 5" in front of the presser foot. This ensures that the presser foot does not stretch the binding in front of it as I sew.
I should mention that this is with straight-grain binding. When I am stretching the binding taut, it is a double layer of straight-grain binding so all I am doing is stretching both layers of binding evenly along the grain. If I do not do this, then the presser foot is likely stretching the top layer of the binding, but not the bottom layer. When this happens, when you go to turn the binding to the other side and sew to finish, you are actually sewing in rippled binding -- because one layer of binding was stretched and the other was not.
Just to recap, I stretch the doubled layer of binding out and up in front of the presser foot (with needle down through all the layers, of course), then lay the binding down on the quilt and finger pin it in place about 5" in front of the presser foot while I sew to the finger pinning.
With bias binding I would do the same; however, because bias can stretch too much, I heavily starch the binding fabric before I cut the binding. That way it won't stretch too much when I pull it out taut in front of the presser foot.
If there are ripples in the binding, even if you are successful in getting them out by blocking the quilt, chances are they will come right back with the next washing. Instead of removing the binding, you can try blocking the quilt, then adding decorative stitching as a design element over the binding. The decorative stitching will keep the ripples under control in future washings.