Binding a Quilt: a Complete Tutorial

Binding a quilt is the final step in finishing. Before you bind, you need to somehow “quilt” your quilt. This means to attach the front and back, with batting in between. I usually machine quilt (or have someone else do it) my quilts these days. There are good tutorials for that here, here, and here. If you are going to machine-quilt you should use batting like Warm & Natural or Hobb’s Heirloom. I usually use a poly-cotton blend.

If you are going to hand quilt you need to use a lighter batting or your wrists will hate you.

Once your quilting is finished you are ready to bind the quilt.
First step is to trim your excess batting. I personally like to trim right to the quilt’s edge. Using a long quilter’s ruler and your rotary blade will give you the best results.

To finish this 42″ x 42″ baby quilt you will need 168″ of continuous binding. (In this post I’m going to show you the easiest way to accomplish that first – using straight-cut binding. We’ll discuss bias-cut binding in a little bit. )

If you need more binding fabric for a bigger quilt, find the perimeter measurement (outside measurement in linear inches) for your quilt and divide that number by 42. (42″ being the width of the fabric you are cutting from.) That is the number of strips you will need. If the answer is 7.6833 – you will need 8 strips. So you need 8 strips at 2.5″ wide, so you need a total of 20″ (just over half a yard.) Does that make sense?

Fabric requirements for this baby quilt is 10″ (just over a 1/4 of a yard.) If your quilt store is nice, you could ask if they’ll cut you 10″. If not, ask for 3/8 yard.
You need to cut FOUR 2 1/2″ strips along the width of the fabric. (To cut strips from the end of a piece of yardage, make sure that you line up the fold of the fabric along a straight line or edge of the mat. This way when you cut your 2 1/2″ strips, they will be straight- not v-shaped.)

Trim the selvage ends off the strips, match right sides together.and sew them together end to end to make one long strip. Use a 1/4″ seam allowance.

This time you want to press your seams open.Then fold the entire strip in half lengthwise and press.

Then take your strip and starting in the middle of one side of the FRONT of the quilt, leaving about 4 inches unpinned, pin your strip to the edge – with raw edges of the binding strip next to the raw edge of the quilt. (Pinning the binding before hand will make your sewing much faster and keep your quilt edge from getting wavy.)

When you get to a corner, put a pin in at the corner at a 45 degree angle.

Fold strip up at that same 45 degree angle

and fold back down again matching the folded edge with the edge of the quilt. Continue to pin.

You should have a little triangle flap between two 45 degree-angled pins. This is called “mitering your corners.” Pretty nifty, huh? This is going to be a snap to sew and will look so fancy when you’re done!
When the strip gets back around to the beginning fold the ends down so that the strips meet-up. Press with your iron to make a crease at both folds.

Trim both ends to about 1/4″.

Bring the quilt back to the machine, pin ends and sew together on the pressed crease.

Press that final seam open, fold in half like the rest of the binding and pin raw edges to the raw edge of the quilt. Now you’re ready to sew the binding to the quilt.
Starting in the middle of one of the sides, sew the binding to the quilt using the edge of your presser foot (1/4″ seam allowance) as your guide.

I would highly recommend a walking foot at this point as it will make your edge a little nicer, but if this is your first quilt or you don’t plan on making a lot of them, a walking foot can be a pricey investment. Your regular foot will work well-enough.
When you get to the corner sew right up to the first corner pin. This should be about 1/4″ away from the edge of the quilt. Lift the foot and needle and turn the quilt. You don’t need to break the thread. *Important* Now, flip the little triangle flap so it lies the other direction. (See photo)
Begin sewing the next side at the very edge and continue with the 1/4″ seam allowance. (I know, some of you are panicking that I left my pins in. I just do that and seem to not break too many needles.)
When you have finished sewing all four sides, fold the folded edge of the binding over to the back of the quilt and pin it down, using those same pins. (You could also use those metal clips that look like hair clips if you don’t like the idea of hauling something around that could potentially impale you.)

Now you can begin to see what a pretty, crisp edge a double binding makes.

The corners on the back should automatically miter – looking like this.

Now it is hand sewing time. Please don’t get scared by this. It is so much easier and faster than you think – just put in a good movie, do some mindless sewing, and you’re done in no time – especially on this little baby quilt. This is another reason I pin (or clip) all at once before I start sewing. Makes the work so much faster.

(For this part of the demonstration I used white thread so you could see what’s happening. When I bound the quilt for real, I used brown thread to hide my stitches.)

Tie a knot at one end of your thread and pull through the backing fabric, under your folded-down binding, then bring the needle through the very bottom edge of the bias strip and tack it down on the backing fabric, right underneath where the needle came through. Then slide the needle through the backing fabric, behind the binding strip bringing the needle out the bottom edge again. This creates a blind stitch. Repeat!

Continue the blind stitch catching down the mitered corner as well.

This is how it will look using matching thread.

Now lets talk about bias binding.
Bias binding is made from 2 1/2″ strips cut on a 45 degree angle. There are lots of tutorials for cutting bias binding like here and here.

Technically, bias binding is a more durable binding because the grain of the fabric is running diagonally in stead of parallel to the edge of the quilt. (Don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense, just trust me on this one.) It also has more stretch – good for scalloped or rounded borders. (But for this reason, a bias binding does much better with a walking foot.)
It also looks nice with strips and checks.

Bias cut strips will have edges with a 45 degree angle.

To sew right sides together, pin ends like this, leaving little 1/4″ tips hanging off the ends.

Sew with a good old 1/4″ seam allowance.

Press seam open.