Tuesday Tutorial: Susie's Magic Binding

There is now a video of this technique. Go to this post to watch the video.

I met Susie at Quilting in the Pines last weekend.  She drives a pumpkin orange (or Tangerine Tango, the color of the year!) Audi TT.  And she demonstrated the coolest completely-machine-sewn binding I've ever seen!

Here's how:

1.  For this technique, you will need a main binding color and an accent color.  Of course, you can use the same color for both -- but why bother with this technique, then?


2.  Trim the excess batting back backing from your quilt.  Then measure the perimeter and add 10" or so.

3.  Cut as many strips of the main (outer) binding fabric as you need to total the perimeter of your quilt at 1 1/2" wide.

4.  Cut the same number of flange (accent) strips at 1 3/4".

5.  Sew the strips of each fabric together end to end.  I always use a mitered join to minimize bulk.

6.  Sew the main color and the accent color together lengthwise using a 1/4" seam.  You now have two strips equal to the perimeter of your quilt.  

7.  Press toward the main (1 1/2" strip) fabric.

8.  Then press lengthwise with wrong sides together and raw edges even.  See how a narrow piping/flange appears when you meet the raw edges?

9.  Leave a 10" tail and begin sewing the binding to the back side of your quilt , with the contrast color facing up, using a 1/4" seam.

10.  In January I wrote a tutorial on mitering binding corners.  It also shows how to join the two ends of the binding.

11.  Once the binding is attached all the way around your quilt, lightly press the binding toward the cut edge.  This will make wrapping the binding to the front side of the quilt easier.

12.  Now wrap the binding to the front, and using thread that matches the flange (or use Superior Threads' Mono Poly) "stitch in the ditch" between the flange and the main binding fabric.

Miter the corners as you would any binding:

13.  Join the two ends of the binding as shown in my January tutorial, with this exception.  In order to make the flange meet evenly, place a pin through the seam line from the wrong side:

 then through the seam line of the right side of the opposite end of the binding:

 (This is a sample -- not the actual binding on the quilt!)  Sew across the two ends of the binding at a 45 degree angle:

 Be sure your stitching crosses the pin exactly where it went through the seams:

And you'll have a perfect join!

Doesn't this technique look great?  And it's completely done by machine -- no tedious hand stitching the binding in place!

According to Susie, this technique is approved for use on Quilts of Valor (previously, they required bindings be hand-sewn in place).

This will certainly be my binding method of choice from now on!  Thanks, Susie!

Addendum

Several readers have asked me to show what the reverse side of the quilt looks like when this binding method is used.  Here is a photo from Quiltmaker's Quilty Pleasures blog showing the reverse of my Mandarin Express Scrap Squad quilt:

Can you see the single line of stitching just to the left of the binding at the right-hand side of the photo? That's the bobbin thread from stitching in the ditch of the Magic Binding flange.

Here's another view, also showing the lovely machine quilting by Ann Reinelt:

Nice, huh? Now, go forth and bind!


From the desk of your



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