catsden

I am going to machine sew the binding down instead of hand sew as this is a quilt for a baby and will get washed much. My question is do I sew the binding on the back and fold to the front to sew or due the normal way. Thanks for your help. This is my first time using minky. Did not use batting and it quilted well.

suern3

Glad to hear the quilting went well for you. I saw your previous post with questions about it. Sorry, I don't have advice about machine binding as I haven't done that. It does seem like a good idea for baby/kids quilts, but so far haven't tried it on mine. Someone here will have good advice for you and I do know there are plenty of on-line videos about it.

Cari-in-Oly

I always do my binding by sewing to the back first then bringing it to the front. I don't press the binding in half before sewing, and when I sew it to the front I don't pin except sometimes at the corners. For the front I use a zipper foot and just hold the binding in place with the edge right over the seam line. Sew a few inches, stop and position a few more inches and repeat. It goes very fast this way and always looks good.

Cari

ManiacQuilter2

I have never used Minky but if you are going to sew it by machine, I would attach to the back and then bring it forward. You can use a decorative stitch to sew the binding down on the front.

Barb in Louisiana

I machine stitch mine on similar to Cari-in-Oly. I haven't worked with Minky so don't know if this will work because that product seems to be thicker than a normal quilt.

I cut my binding 2 1/2", fold it in half and sew it on the back as a 1/4" seam. When I roll it to the front, I barely cover the stitch line, pulling the extra to the back so that I am stitching on the binding on both the front & back at the same time. Similar to Cari, I sew a few inches, stop and get everything matched up again. For the corners, I've tried two different methods...

1. fold and sew a HST in the corner so that it creates a cap that fits the corner when pulled to the front. The trick is only sewing the half that will be on the front. It's tricky

2. The second way is to fold the corners as you would when hand-stitching and pin securely, then very slowly sew over the pins. I then come back and hand stitch the corners so they don't come apart.

maryb119

I cut my binding at 2 1/4 inches wide unless I am using a heavy backing like minky. Then I cut it 2 1/2 inches wide. I stitch the strips together and press in half lengthwise. Then I stitch the binding on the front of quilt and wrap around the edge to the back and hand stitch the back.

quiltingbuddy

Why is it sewn from the back to the front? I like the idea of using a decorative stitch, which do you use mostly? And is there a tut on this that you know of?

Bree123

It really just depends. You want to do your final stitching on the front. That's what's most important. Also, I'd recommend using bias binding & making it 2.5" instead of the standard 2" width both for durability and to help accommodate the stretch of the minky back.

When you do the initial stitching on the front & then SID on front like Nancy Zieman recommends, your stitches are hidden in the ditch on the front. That works well as long as your binding is slightly longer in the back than on the front. I did that on my avatar quilt (McCall's); the front is 1/4" and the back is 1/2", according to the pattern instructions. From the front, it is a beautiful invisible stitch -- or you could use a decorative stitch along that same seam & that also looks nice. It can get a little bit tricky because you can't see where your binding is to ensure it's covering the original stitching line and is perfectly straight, but I did it as a beginner and it wasn't bad. Just use plenty of clips/pins.

Here's Nancy Zieman's tutorial:
http://www.nancyzieman.com/blog/quic...s-for-success/

Other quilters prefer to do the initial stitching on the back & then pull to the front & stitch. This method is easier if you made your binding the same width front & back. If you plan to do a decorative stitch, this can look especially nice. With a straight stitch, it means you have that tiny folded edge to the inside of your stitching line. You also need to make sure that your binding is long enough to cover over the stitching line from where you attached it on the back. Leah Day references this in her binding videos.

Straight Stitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85MWLgG172k
Buttonhole Stitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wprg5vzkuGw

Hope that helps!