Ideas on finishing a binding by machine and not have it look awful :-(

OH, I have a friend that does it, somehow she puts piping or something in the binding and it turns out perfectly everytime, on the machine. If no one else knows what I'm taking about, I'll try to get instructions from her and post them.

Thanks, Rachel.

is it like the cording around a pillow or cushion???

Knowing they're going to experience lots of washings, I bind baby quilts by machine. I suppose it could be considered cheating because I don't use a separate binding at all. The way I do it is to use the backing fabric as binding:

After quilting, I trim the batting even with the edges of the top, but keep the backing about 2" larger all the way around. Then to bind it, I fold the edge of the backing over itself once to enclose the raw edge, then fold it over onto the front of the quilt top. I pin it and zigzag stitch it down (from the top side of the quilt). I miter the corners so they lay well and I find that part a bit tricky simply because I need more practice at that.

I hope I've explained this well enough. I'd post a picture, but I don't have any of the quilts I've done this technique on.

I want to avoid the cording method. I believe there is another that is more like a flange

Thank you Sew Cornie. I will give this method a try.

I've done a couple of baby quilts using a fancy stitch. A couple of things that really help is to press the binding seam nice and flat before you bring it around to the other side. It helps it stay that way while you are working on it. I also pin it a lot! Every couple of inches. You could also try using washable elmer's glue to hold it while you do the stitching. Then wash it to get the glue out.

Oops, almost forgot ~ I use a walking foot on the binding.

The method of doing a fancy stitch around the inside edge of the single fold binding works!! And it is really good looking, too. After sewing it to the front, fold over to the back and pin as you go. Then do a zig-zag or other stitch around.

Here's a great Youtube video on how to do a binding completely by machine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wprg5vzkuGw

It's very similar to invisible machine applique. It's the closest thing to hand binding I have found.