Hi, it's Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.
We have a much requested tutorial for you today.
A lot of people have asked for me to show them how to sew a binding on using the machine.
I love to bind so I don't do this very often but I certainly can show you how.
What you're going to do is you're going to take your regular binding strips and we're
just going to go through this from the beginning so it'll be a whole binding tutorial again.
So, I like to cut my binding and this is personal preference but I like to cut mine in 2 1/2"
and then before I do anything I iron them right in half.
So, I just fold the edges together with the wrong sides together on this and I iron this
all the way.
I do this for two reasons, one it helps it lay down real nice, and two when I'm laying
the strips together I sew them together so that they have a forty-five degree angle on
them, and it helps me to see where that fold line is crossing on there.
So, let's go ahead and iron the last strip.
There we go a little bit more.
I do have a tutorial on how to make this ironing pad.
It's on You Tube under Missouri Star Quilt Company, Ironing Board.
A lot of people ask about my ironing pad.
It's actually made with a piece of flooring and a towel but you can see how to do that
in that other tutorial.
So, now what we're going to do is we're going to take these strips over to the sewing machine
and I have my sewing machine right here.
How I put these together so they lay at a forty-five is, I open up this fold right here,
and I lay this one directly on the cross like this.
So, it makes a little cross.
I don't bother to cut off my selvage because I leave it sticking out of the edge here and
off the edge here.
And what I'm going to do is I'm going to lay my presser foot right there, and I'm going
to sew from here to here.
So I'm gonna make a straight, I'm just going to eyeball it and sew from this edge to this
edge.
You can butt them together if you want.
The reason I like to do the bias binding is that it actually makes less fabric together,
so, you don't have a big hunk of fabric that puffs out your binding.
So, let's go ahead and sew some of these together.
I also really like to chain piece these, and I'll show you how I do that.
I just sew straight across, and then I grab the end of this and bring it around, and I
lay it right down here in front of my needle, and then I lay the next strip across it, again
putting right sides together, and we're just going to go ahead and cinch that down.
We'll do that a few more times so you can see that.
So again, now I'm going to grab my end, open it up, lay it down flat like that, grab the
next strip, and open it up, and put it right here.
So, it kind of makes an X, and I'm going to slide that up under that needle, and then
just sew straight across, and let's get one more.
I've got to do the last one here and then we'll be good to go.
I think this is only going to take about four strips but I always cut one more just in case.
There's nothing worse than getting to the end of your binding and being short like this
much so we like to make sure we have lots!
Alright, so now all my bindings are sewn together, and what I'll do is, you can see how they're
all chain pieced here.
What I'm going to do is, I'm just going to cut along here with my scissor and clip that
thread, and do this on all of them.
So, I'm going to cut right along, I leave about 1/4".
It doesn't have to be particularly straight because you sewed straight.
So, again I'm just going to cut along here, clip that, and cut along here.
There you go.
And when you open it, see, you have that bias binding that works so well and just lays nice
and flat.
OK, the big difference between a binding like this, and the other binding, is how you start
it.
This is a little tumbler quilt I made using our Tumbler Template here at the Missouri
Star.
This is Girly Girl fabric, and this is part of that line.
you can see it right here and I wanted to bring it in in that binding.
So, the only difference between putting your binding on with a machine or by hand is where
you sew it.
So, when you put your binding on by the machine you're going to sew it onto the back, you're
going to bring that around to the front, because you want to be able to put a nice stitch on
there.
If you do it the opposite way you don't know where that stitch is going to land.
So, what we're going to do is we're going to turn our quilt over, and if you're good
at finishing a binding that is so great!
Or you have a way you do it.
I like to use the binding tool because the angles just are hard for me.
So, again, I have to make 12" between with The Binding Tool, and then I start by putting
on my binding here, and I just leave about a 10" tail.
This is what you do if you're going to use The Binding Tool.
If you don't need The Binding Tool, more power to you!
Holy Smoke.
So, here's what we're going to do.
We're going to put this on on the back and we're just going to go around and sew it.
So, we'll head on over to the sewing machine.
Alright, so we're just sewing this down now.
I'm actually not pulling this through, I am just trying to hold it up here.
It's having a hard time holding up here, so, let me just scoot that over a bit.
Put this up here and I want to show you how we get around a corner.
It's exactly the same as when you bind it from the other side.
We're going to do the same thing.
Alright, we're going to stop a little bit more than a 1/4" maybe a 1/2" from the end.
We're going to pull this out.
We're going to put our thumb under here and pull this binding so that it meets up with
the corner right there.
And then we're going to start sewing down that other side.
That's how you get those nice mitered corners and you want a pretty mitered corner on the
front as well as on the back.
OK let's do this next corner again.
We sew to about a 1/2" and I lift my presser foot and I'm going to pull this around the
direction I'm sewing.
I'm going to lift my needle and slide it out, and then I'm just going to put my thumb under
here and tuck that back so that it lines up straight with the top, and then I'm going
to sew down this other side.
Those corners are just easy as pie.
Alright, now I'm going to finish sewing these up and we'll meet you back at the cutting
table!
OK, so we've got this all sewn on.
Normally, it would be sewn up here remember but when you're going to do it by machine,
you want to sew it onto the back.
It's all sewn on, and then what we're going to do is we're going to bring this around
to the front.
This gives us greater control because we'll be able to see exactly where that stitch is
going.
So, I'm just going to start here in the middle of a side and just bring it on over to the
sewing machine.
This is actually a fun time to choose to do some fun things.
On most of your machines you have some fun stitches that we don't get a chance to use
and this is a good place to use those.
I'm actually going to use one of those zig-zags where it (sound effects) you know how it has
all the little stitches as goes along and zig-zags.
I think that's kind of a fun one to do on a border.
Gives a kind of lacy look.
Another thing you could do, this is a really fun place to add trim, because you have total
control over where it's going.
If I took this little ric-rac I could lay it along here like this, and then as I bring
that binding over it would give it a little scallop edge to the inside of the quilt edge
and it would just look really cute.
You could use a tiny ric-rac on there.
All kinds of things you can do with the front binding.
But let's head on over to that sewing machine and take a look at how I sew this down on
the top.
When you're sewing this down Some people use these little clips they're like the little
hair clips that bend to hold this binding down.
I actually just turn mine as I go.
So, let's just stick it under here.
And I actually think that's one of the benefits of using a 2 1/2" binding strip.
It's because it gives you enough room to fold that over.
I'm going to meet the edge of my fold for my binding strip right along the stitch line.
See this stitch line where I stitched it on the back gives me a guide on the front.
So, that's what I'm going to do, I'm just going to sew along.
You can see the stitch that I'm doing is like a little scallop, kind of, and I'm going to
stop every 6" or so and make sure that this folded down, meeting up with the edge of my
stitch, and hold it down, and I'm just going to go that little bit of a way.
It might be faster to pin it down but I'm kind of a perfectionist where my binding is
concerned.
Alright, so here we go, a little more.
I want to show you what happens when we get to the corner, and there's a lot of fun little
stitches you can use on these, on the machines now.
They just have so much to offer.
So, you can see that little stitch it just looks cute.
Alrighty now, I'm getting close to the corner, and I'm going to show you what I do here at
the corner.
I'm making sure that my, I'm making sure that right here this is, I'm going to hold this
down making sure it's laying, covering that stitch line, and that it goes flat off the
edge, just like this.
So, we're going to go ahead and sew down there and then right here, I'm going to leave my
needle in and I'm going to pivot this.
I'm going to lift up this needle and then I'm going to fold this over.
We want the mitered corner on the front as well as the back.
OK so you can see the design coming out of here and again I want to show you one more
corner.
So, were just about there let me get right there we're going to turn this.
We want to turn it the direction you're going, and then we're going to pull this out of here.
I'm going to go ahead and clip these, and then we're just going to go ahead and lay
this over.
We want to make sure, hold this down, we want to make sure it makes a nice miter and look
at that pretty miter right there, beautiful!
A beautiful miter right there!
Then we slide that under our presser foot hoping it doesn't move.
When you have that much fabric you, kind of, have to give it a little help through there.
And it emerges, fairly triumphant!
OK I just want to show you one more way to do a corner.
As you come to the edge you can press this outside edge down, and fold the top edge over
as well.
Either way will work while trying to form a miter.
So, there we have that right there, and it's just going to lay down a little miter, and
then you can sew straight over that, and pivot, and come down this other side.
It'll leave a nice edge either way.
So, here we are with our finished quilt.
It's really just a quick, fun way to finish a binding.
It's easy, it's quick, it is a lot faster than hand binding but really, you know, bind
how you like.
You can see this little edge one thing that you want to make sure of when you do these
edges is that it's something that will come out and grab that edge.
You know you can do a little stitch right along the edge, or you can do a flower stitch.
Just something that will come over the top of this, so, you make sure you catch that
and hold that down.
This is a quick tutorial on how to bind with a sewing machine and we hope you've enjoyed
this from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.