rvsfan

My quilt is 100% cotton, pieced and lightly quilted with Aurifil. It was laying quite flat. Then I sewed the binding to the front, turned to the back and hand sewed to the back. Now the quilt has wavy edges. What could have caused this? This was my first binding.

Tartan

Is the binding straight of grain or bias? Bias binding stretches and can cause waves. I also like to increase my stitch length on my machine when I sew binding on. Too many stitches per inch at the quilt edge can also cause waves.

rvsfan

Straight of grain binding, but I didn't know about increasing my stitch length. Thanks for the info.

PaperPrincess

did you use a walking foot to attach the binding? If ;you stretch the quilt the quilt edge it will ruffle a bit.

QuiltE

If your quilt was truly laying flat before binding .... what you have described could be a sign that the binding was pulled too tight as you stitched it in place.

IOW that the binding is now shorter than the quilt it is attached to
...... and now the two are fighting it out and causing the waves!

rvsfan

This is what I suspected happened. Thanks.

QuiltE

Which of the many suggestions did you suspect?

It'll be extra work, to remove the binding and put it back on again ..... Yes, extra work, but well worth it, if you have figured out the problem.

maviskw

I think that is backwards. If you tug a little on the binding, it will never be wavy. If you pull too much, the center bags a little. I did that once.
When you add your binding, lay it on the edge with a little tug, hold that tug in place as you sew up to your fingers. It needs to be taut as you sew.

QuiltE

Agree ..... though the way the original poster commented, I was not sure she really meant that the binding itself was wavy, but that the border had become wavy, which was why I made this suggestion.




In the same sense, it could be that she pulled the edge of the quilt taut against the binding. Thus stretching the quilt edge, which would then make the border and binding wavy.