Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Tutorial-Endless Binding

   Once I learned this technique I never sewed two straight ends of binding together again.  It isn't necessarily easier but the finished look is much cleaner and less bulky.  For some reason I always start sewing my binding on in the middle of the longest side of a quilt.  I will also pre-lay out the binding in order to avoid sewing one of the seams at one of the corners of the quilt.
    When beginning this endless binding technique make sure to leave a good 10" tail, you will do the same at the end.  Once binding has been sewn in place remove quilt from the sewing machine and lay on a flat surface.  Smooth out beginning piece back towards the ending piece of binding.  Lay a ruler on the raw edge of your binding as shown.
 Smooth out ending piece of binding so that it lays on top of ruler.  
 I make 2 1/4" binding, whatever size you make yours that is the point that you will cut, yes its commitment time, cut your ending binding piece right on that mark.
 Remove ruler and shift beginning binding piece open and upwards as shown.  Make sure not to twist it.  You will be sewing right sides together, right sides being the two folds touching.
 Now lay ending binding piece on top of beginning.  You may have to scrunch up your quilt to get these pieces to line up flatly and smoothly.  Line up each corner (below).  To prevent shifting place two pins in the top right corner and bottom left corner of binding.
 To get your sew line,  fold top right corner over to touch bottom left corner.  Finger press on the diagonal.
 When you open it up you should have a guide that you can now sew your binding seam down.
 Since I use my trusty Baby Lock with walking foot to sew on my binding I just continue with that machine to sew this endless binding seam.  Right along that finger pressed line.
Before I trim my seam allowance I always check to make sure the binding is sewn correctly, it will lay flat.  Once checked, trim to 1/4" seam.
 Press open.  Press binding back in the folded position.
 The binding lays nice and flat and now you just need to close that gap from where you ended and where you began.  I pin the binding in place because I never want to get to the end and have a fold in the fabric.
 This is how your endless seam should look when this is done correctly.
 FYI hair clips make the best clamps to hold your binding in place, no more pins sticking you in the fingers as you are finishing up your project.
You will have to let me know if you found this tutorial helpful.

No comments: