Need help with machine binding please!!!
 

I'm about to bind my Shakespeare in the Park quilt and have had trouble with wavy binding in the past.
The only success I've had is when I hand sew the back. Whenever I try to machine bind both sides I run into problems galore.
I was hoping to machine bind this one on both sides. I have a Bernina and a Juki so I could use either one, if someone knows of a special foot that might help.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Susie

Is your binding wavy all the way around or just near the join? I saw a tutorial once that had us leave about a 16th of an inch between the edge and the fold before you cut it. Then join, I don't get waves there anymore. If I am machine sewing a binding I sew the binding to the back and then sew it down from the front. I can manage a decent line of stitches that way rather than front to back and then front and try and do it in the ditch and catch the edge of the binding on the back. I don't usually do bias bindings. Good luck. I hope you get it figured out.

Hi Stitchnripper, on my other quilt only part of it is wavy, I'd say about half of it. I really hate doing binding.
If I can't figure it out I'll just machine bind the front and hand sew the back. I would just like to get
better at doing it by machine on both sides.

I stopped getting waves when I stopped pressing my binding in half before sewing it on. I use my Juki 2010Q which is a straight stitch machine with a narrow foot.

I took a sample of binding with when I was looking for machines and loved how this machine handled it. I can line up the edge with the inside of the foot, and get a near perfect 1/16th seam around the edge. BTW - I quit pressing my binding in half before getting this machine, and it made a world of difference on regular swing needle machine.

Cathy, what foot do you use? I have the same Juki

One way that the binding can become wavy is if it's stretched. Use a walking foot if you have one. Don't pull or push the quilt thru and make sure that the weight of the quilt is supported both in front of and in back of the foot. Also, what stitch length are you using? I use a bit longer stitch length , like a 3 or 3.5

I do not press my binding either and definitely always use walking foot

I machine sew the bindings and I haven't had any problems with waves. I press my binding in half, and then I machine sew it all the way around. I use the standard 2.5 to stitch it. Then I fold it over and press again ... then I pin - not a lot, just enough to keep it in place. When I sew it this time, I lengthen my stitches to 3.5 or 4, and I let my machine guide it.

Are you using bias or straight grain binding?

Have you tried gluing it down before stitching?

When I machine sew binding I also do the faux flange Tartan suggested. I do press it in half. The flange technique calls for stitching to the back first then folding over to the front. I then glue baste in place with washable school glue and set it with a hot iron. I use a walking foot for all steps. I don't have any issues.

Here is a good tutorial from the QB by Charismah.

https://www.quiltingboard.com/tutori...ge-t77821.html

This is the foot (regular one) and how I line it up (this was to show someone how to do this without an open arm machine).

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...pshycp6v1f.jpg

try the you tube "sharon schamber perfect straight binding" technique. No waves with this method.

Thanks for all the great tips, everyone!

By the way, this is straight binding, not bias. But I cut it lengthwise. That may be wrong???

The waviness probably comes from having the binding fabric stretch when you sew the second side. If you think of a straight line running across your binding, if one end of the line on one side of the quilt gets sewn down beyond the end of the line on the opposite side of the binding, the binding will not be evenly turned and you will get ripples or waves. Clear as mud? Here are the techniques I use to get perfect machine binding.

(1) I do not cut the edge of the quilt. I mark the "virtual" edge of the quilt with a permanent marker, and use this line as if it were my cutting line. This helps for a variety of reasons.

(2) Starch the binding fabric before cutting, especially if the fabric was pre-washed. It doesn't have to be terribly heavy starch; even simple spray starching helps. It helps the binding not stretch while you are working with it.

(3) I do not press the binding in half. It seems counter-intuitive, but binding actually works better if you do not press in half. The reason is because it rolls better over the edge. I did not believe this until I tried it.

(4) I don't always use a walking foot. Having a "virtual" cut edge instead of a real cut edge makes the edge easier to control whether using a walking foot or not.

(5) Binding goes on top when sewing, for obvious reasons. I hold the binding up above the quilt sandwich and keep it nice and taut while sewing. This ensures that I do not sew more binding than necessary to the quilt sandwich. It's better to have more quilt than binding, so let the feed dogs gather the quilt while sewing to the taut binding.

(6) After machine sewing the binding on one side, I take it to the ironing board and iron the binding away from the quilt sandwich. You would not believe how much this helps!

(7) At this point I can cut the quilt sandwich down to size. Be *very* careful on corners; do *not* cut through the binding at corners. I mindlessly trimmed the binding at a corner along with the quilt sandwich and ended up with holes in the binding. :shock: I experiment a little before deciding how wide to cut the quilt sandwich, testing to see how much I need to cut in order to get the binding to roll and be full without being over-stuffed.

(8) I go back to the ironing board and use Elmer's white washable school glue and my iron to glue-baste the binding to the right side of the quilt. This allows me to secure the entire binding evenly along the edge. It takes a little time but, when I take the quilt to the sewing machine, the final sewing goes much faster because I do not need to struggle with the quilt making sure the fold is accurate.

(9) I like to use a decorative stitch on the right side of the quilt. It helps a *lot* if you can choose a decorative stitch that does not have a center line. Too dense a decorative stitch will make the stitching very slow. My favorite so far is a feather stitch that does not have a line down the center. This website shows a lot of machine feather stitch variations that do not have the center line: http://loopylace.com/anniescrazyworld/?cat=16 . My old Bernina 1230, which I love, does not have this kind of stitch. Its feather stitch goes out to both sides of a center line. The problem with center lines is that any deviation from the edge of the binding shows. With the decorative stitches that do not have a center line you can go faster and small deviations do not show.

Hope this helps!

Prism, as usual, you have been most helpful! The only thing I can't do is the first step. MSQC already trimmed the quilt. I can see how I've made a lot of mistakes along the way. Thank you so much!

I have seen/read that many people use Elmer's Glue on the binding.... my question is Does it gunk up your machine?

Hi SusieQ -

I posted this tutorial: https://www.quiltingboard.com/tutori...d-t288233.html but unfortunately didn't take pics when I put the front side on.

After I put the back side on, I press the binding "out" from the back side. I start sewing the front in the same place that I started the back, using a 3.0" or 3.5" stitch length. I fold over about 12" and make sure it isn't stretched or off-grain. I sew that section down, then repeat the process. When I get to the corners, I make sure the miter faces the opposite direction from the other side. That really does help. I got that tip from a Martelli Notions video on YouTube.

Good luck and I'm looking forward to seeing your finished quilt. That one is on my list.

Not if you use the correct glue. Some will gum up your needle. The one I use and recommend is specifically Elmer's white washable *school* glue. This is basically a glue made out of starch, so it washes out of the fabric easily. The glue does need to be dry before you sew, but ironing dries it quickly and, anyway, it is the drying that makes it stick two things together. If you want to re-position, it's easy to pull dried fabrics apart and re-glue.

This glue also works for piecing when you need absolutely accurate seam matching. In that case, I take the pieces to the ironing board, push a pin straight down through both pieces where they need to match, lift up the top seam allowance so I can place a tiny drop of glue in the seam, place a hot iron on top of the seam to quickly dry the glue, remove the pin, and take to the sewing machine.

One more thing I should mention about binding. It is usually not necessary to pre-wash binding fabric, especially if you are doing straight-grain binding. If you are doing bias binding, though, you may want to pre-wash for shrinkage. On one quilt I decided to do bias binding using an unwashed Michael Miller black fabric. The binding went on beautifully but, after the quilt was washed, the binding fabric shrank a lot, creating ripples and waves along all of the edges. Bearisgray has mentioned how much MM black fabric shrank when she pre-washed it. So I think this caution has to do both with the fact that this is a fabric that has a lot of shrinkage, plus the bias cut probably makes the shrinkage even worse. None of my other bindings have shrunk like that even though they were not pre-washed; however, none were MM black and all were straight-grain bindings.

I only machine sew bindings on lap or crib but I use the edge walking foot (or SITD food) on my Bernina...it has the center guide that hugs right up against the binding.

Thank you, everyone. I knew you would help me :)

I put my binding on by machine. I always use a walking foot, sew the binding on the back first (sew line is 1/3 of the binding), then pull binding up and iron up, and then pull the binding over to the front and sew on the edge of the binding. While attaching, pull the binding over to cover the sewen line (a little beyond the line because when you release the fabric it will slide back anyway). I never have any problems, I don't even pin or clip. As a hint, use the same color binding as the back, then if the back is not exactly even, the threads just seem to disappear and the front looks perfect. Good luck!

I do not use bias binding and I leave the tiniest of space between the edge of the quilt and the fold in the binding. I often machine sew my binding. I attach to the back, turn to the front and use a decorative stitch to attach the front. Sometimes with a variegated thread or even a complete contrast thread. I think it gives a bit more of a decorative look (and it hides any little slips!!).

I've gotten wavy binding several times and finally discovered my pressure foot was too "heavy". I have a button that I can push down on to lighten the pressure and that solved the problem.