how to bind a quilt (part 1: attaching your tape)
Looking for how to calculate how much binding tape you’ll need, how to make your tape, or how to finish sewing your binding on? You can find those posts here:
HOW TO CALCULATE HOW MUCH BINDING TAPE YOU NEED
Before we dive into the step-by-steps, let’s take a minute to talk about the two standard ways to finish sewing your binding: first up is by hand and the second is by machine (as this may or may not be an important design decision!).
Typically when you finish your binding by hand, you’ll attach the binding to the front side of your quilt and then sew it in place using a blind hem stitch to the back. While the hand stitching does take a little bit of time, this is my preferred method of binding as I just love how the stitches melt into the binding!
Now, if you want to machine finish, there's an extra design consideration to keep in mind before you start: which side of the quilt do you want to attach the binding to first? When you machine sew your binding, you’re going to have a line of stitches on the underside of the final stitching because the binding is always going to be slightly wider on the final seam side so it will cover your first stitches that attach the binding to the quilt. All of which means that whichever side you attach your binding to first is going to end up with an outline of stitches all around the quilt.
Now I don’t like the idea of not knowing what the outline/border of stitches on the front of the quilt is going to look like as I sew (I’d rather take the risk for any wobbly stitches on the back). So I always attach the binding first to the back, then finish it off on the front so I have full control of what the front of the quilt looks like as I sew. Just something to keep in mind before you start!
How Attach Your Binding Tape - Step-by-Step
Here’s how I attach my binding to my quilt top regardless of whether I am finishing by hand or machine:
1. Leave your walking foot on for this part of the process if you’re attaching by machine
2. Take the end of your binding tape that has the one remaining diagonal mark
3. Leaving about a 6-inch tail and starting along the middle of one side of your quilt, line up the long side’s raw edges of the tape with the raw edges of the quilt
4. Use a quarter inch seam allowance to attach your binding to the front side of your quilt (you can do this by hand or by machine)
5. When you come to a corner of the quilt, stop sewing a quarter of an inch from the edge (I always add some backstitches here)
6. Lift your presser foot and trim your threads
7. Fold your binding tape away from the edge you just stitched, then fold back along the edge you’re about to sew (this creates a little triangle peak: don’t worry this will naturally fall into place to create a mitered edge at the end). Make sure the edges of the tape and quilt stay lined up, even at the corner: if you have too much or too little tape at the corner, things will get a little funny!
8. Fold the triangle to the left and then lower the presser foot and needle so that you’re starting your stitch ¼” away from both edges of the quilt (don’t sew over the triangle!).
9. Continue sewing and turning at the corners until you are about 10-12” away from where you started
10. Line up the edge of the beginning tail and the end of the tape, sewing the two together as you did to make the tape (this takes some finessing and pinning definitely helps: watch the video below to see what I mean!)
11. Trim the ends of the binding, press the seam (a finger press will work here!)
12. Finish sewing along the edge of the quilt
Now you’ve got your tape attached, it’s time to finish sewing it to your quilt!