Originally Posted by Johanna Fritz

Ladies,
I stumbled upon this binding shortcut after a class with Weeks Ringle, of Chicago. She gave us some binding tips. When I came home, I was binding 6 placemats and came up with this idea on my own. It was one of those, "Duh, why didn't I do this before?!"
Thought I would share.

When you put on binding to a sewn item, I have seen it pooled in sewer's laps and I have seen women wearing toilet paper roll necklaces with it. I took a large, empty Rx bottle. I taped down the first binding edge with easily removable painter's tape, I then wound the binding so that it would pull off clockwise (providing tension), and so that the center fold was facing me as I sit at the machine (see the photos). As you sew, the binding comes off as the item you are sewing moves and pulls it. This leaves both hands free to "insert" your item into the binding. Hope I didn't make it sound too confusing. Enjoy!

Originally Posted by Melrose V

Wow, aren't you clever! Thanks for sharing the tip. And the pictures make it even more understandable!

Originally Posted by jaciqltznok

here is the thing..this might work for smaller bindings, but the larger the quilt the larger the binding and eventually it will not fit on the bottle..
another thing is, if you use your machine like this and something goes wrong, you have just voided your warranty! So always ask yourself this question before you do something like this to your machine..is doing this "shortcut" worth the money it will cost me to repair this machine if something goes wrong?
If the answer is NO, then please consider spooling it from out of a large mouth jar, bucket, etc!