How to Bind a Quilt by Machine
 

I needed a refresher course to make my machine binding look better. (Normally I hand bind, but occasionally I need to finish quickly.) I found this tutorial especially helpful today. Tried it on my doll quilts and was very pleased with the results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi3yOP8wqa4

I keep trying to find a better method, but have not found a satisfying one yet. Will check out this link. thanks.

I do mine similar to hers with the exception that I cut my binding at 2.5 inches and don't iron it in half. Then I sew it on the back as she does, including all the corner work. When I turn that binding to the front, I have a little bit extra width. I fold the binding with my fingers and put the edge of my binding on the front so that it just covers the seam that is already there. I then push the extra width of the binding to the back so that now I am sewing on the edge of both the front and the back of binding on the quilt. My stitches do not go off onto the back of the quilt top at all. I work with about 5 inches at a time, using those little red clips to hold everything in place. Those little clips have measurements on them so I can check front & back before sewing and make sure I am where I want to be.

At the corners, I pin like crazy. Yes, I have to rip out stitches sometimes, if my binding slips. Using the clips every 5 inches does help with that. Also, I cut my bindings on the bias so that I can use a little bit of stretch to keep the binding laying flat on the quilt top. Hope this helps someone.

edited to add: I have carpal tunnel in both wrists. Until I figured out how to make the bindings such that they looked like they were put on with a binding machine, but doubled on the edge as they should be, it would take me hours of hand sewing to do the binding on a 60 inch square quilt. Lots of pain too.

I visited with a lady this summer at a quilt show about this because she said she does both sides with her machine. I mentioned I had tried that way, but never felt I would be happy with it and my finishing the last side by hand always looked much better. I have gotten much quicker at than when I first started. She said the trick was to keep practicing it with the machine and eventually it gets very easy. Hat the idea of ruining my hard work on a quilt by finishing binding by machine if I can't get it right. Maybe I should practice on small projects first, like potholders!

I just made a quilt doing my best to try new things. I did 2 different machine bindings and do not like either one of them. I am sold now on hand stitching any bindings. I figure with all the work I put into making a quilt the last thing I want is to have a bad looking finish to it.

Agreed: Hand binding is my preference for the precision and relaxation of it. But with my additional looming with deadlines , I decided to machine bind. This particular video explains it well . These doll quilts for charity were ideal for practicing. Kids don’t care about the mistakes.

I always do machine bindings.

The last two quilts plus a wall hanging were finished with flange binding. I played with strip sizes and the pressing of the seam allowance. On the last one, I used that 1/4 inch seam as the fold line for the flange so it had more definition.

I use this nifty way to do my binding by machine.
http://valleymqg.org/wp-content/uplo...lt-binding.pdf

I might try this. I think I would get similar results to my method and maybe with a little less work. Thanks for sharing.

I wish she had photos. not sure about the yarn.

My friend showed me the greatest way to machine bind. Sew binding on the back as usual. She then brings her binding to the front and uses fusible thread to iron the front side down and uses the serpentine stitch on her machine to sew it down. The fusible thread keeps everything from moving. She does this on all her donation quilts and says it saves her lots of frustration.

I have the worst time machine binding both sides. It never comes out right and I end up taking one side out. Thanks for the links.

This is the way I do mine. I stitch in the ditch from the front after I have folded the binding to the back. It took a while to be able to do it without pinning, but now I can do that except for the corners. I need one pin to hold that miter in place.

Before you do this, you need to iron the binding open from the front side so that the ditch is well defined. My friend told us that if you don't get finished today, you need to re-iron that binding open when you get back to it.

Researching feet for my new Janome I came across a machine quilt binding foot. This is the Janome one, but I'm pretty sure I've seen a generic high shank system that is similar. It may not help this time, but a foot might be something to look into if you find yourself needing to machine bind quilts very often. Of course, whether or not you can find a system that your machine supports is always a question.

https://www.janome.com/en/blog/new-v...lt-binder-set/