Serge before you bind?
 

I am wondering if those of you that have sergers use them on your quilts before you sew the binding on. I saw someone on the web (I'm sorry I have since forgotten who) serge the edges to flatten and trim THEN sewed on the binding as usual. I am tempted to try this but I am a serger newbie and somewhat nervous. After all the work on a quilt, I don't want to mess anything up at the end of that sometimes long road.

sounds like unnecessary work to me, unless you're going to let it sit around for awhile before you bind.

I do - that way I get all three layers 'together' before I put the binding on.

Before I started to use the serger - I would stay-stitch the three layers together

Stay-stitching (as used here) is a row of stitching about 1/8 inch from the raw edges that gets covered by the biding and is left in the item

Ditto. I have a serger and did this once. I didn't really think it helped or added to the quilt any. A lot of longarmers will request that you NOT serge the edges, also.

sounds like a case of whatever works best for you ;-)

I like to square up my quilt and cut it with my rotary cutter so that's perfectly square, before putting on the binding. I don't see how you could use the serger to cut it and get it square so it hangs just right.

I've heard and read about doing this, and think I'll try it on the baby quilt I'm working on, now. First, tho, I'm going to serge around a piece I did to practice FMQ on. Better safe than sorry!

I just got a serger, so, will try this with a practice piece and see if it makes a difference to me.

I always do before I put binding on....works like a charm and takes only a few minutes.....i don`t serge before I send it to a longarmer...only after it is quilted.....I love this technique and makes it easier to sew the binding on....

I've heard that it's supposed to give you a crisper edge when applying your binding, but I've only done a little bit of serging and I'm not confidant of my serging abilities that I could feed the quilt through accurately - I'm worried I'd slice off too much of the edge.

I do sometimes use my machine and my overcast stitch if the border had a lot of seams along the outside edge. I also find that using my iron when I bind works great. After stitching on the binding, I press the binding out (so you're getting a good fold at the seam line). Then I fold the binding over to the back (or front, if doing my faux piped binding technique) and press so that the edge gets a good fold. I find doing this helps me better sew the binding down, whether doing so by hand or machine.