Comment on Bias Binding

I've already had a couple of questions about the binding done on my little wall hanging. Its actually not hard if you don't have a brain fart like I did when doing the binding on this little quilted wall hanging. However, one phone call to Mum sorted out my stupid mistake! Its my Mum who teaches me all I need to know about sewing things!

Let's see if I can talk you through the process of putting this wall hanging together. Next time I make one I'll try to take step-by-step pictures.

1. I cut strips of the dark blue fabric and sewed them on top and bottom first, trimming the excess before pressing them open. I then did the same for the sides. I also followed this process with the dragonfly fabric.

2. Cut a piece of backing fabric larger than the top piece you just put together, sandwitch a piece of batting in between (I like Warm And Natural its much nicer to work with than white polyester batting) again bigger than your top piece.

3. Quilt as desired. I "stitched in the ditch" using a silver metallic thread. Any unquilted area shouldn't be bigger than your hand spread out.

4. Trim down excess fabric using a rotary cutter (actually that's all I use, its a great investment even for cutting stitching fabric!) to match the size of your top piece.

5. To create bias binding cut strips of desired fabric, I cut mine to a width of 1.5 inches. I wouldn't go much smaller than that as I found this width a challenge to work with. If your strip of fabric you cut isn't long enough to go all the way around your piece with extra left over (I usually eyeball it at this point) cut the necessary amount of strips and sew them together into one long piece. Using the iron you need to press the long strip so its now half its width (wrong sides together).

6. You're first going to sew this bias to the back of your quilted piece. You are going to match your raw edges (does this make sense) you're going to line up the cut edge (not pressed) of your bias with the cut edge on the back of your quilted piece. You're now going to sew these pieces together. When you get to you first corner, stop 1/4 of an inch before the corner. You're going to fold your bias up first then fold over (hard to describe) this will create a mitered look on the front. Now cutting your thread you're going to start sewing the next side starting at the very corner. Keep repeating this process at each corner. When you get within 2" of where you started stop sewing and cut your thread. Here's where you're going to sew together the two ends so that the seam ends up on the "inside" of your binding. Sew these together so there's no excess fabric to avoid a bulge in your binding. Now go back and continue sewing on the binding until you overlap where you started.

7. Now for the front. You're going to start folding over the bias to the front your pressed edge will be folding over and when you sew down the bias it will give you a nice finished look. Sew along the pressed edge (pretty darned close to the edge) of the pressed bias. As you reach each corner when you pull the bias around to the front it should easily fold into a mitered corner.

8. If you're either attaching a sleeve or loops for hanging pin those to the back before you sew the binding onto the front, this way as you sew down the binding you'll end up sewing down the sleeve or loops.

This is probably clear as mud. Next time I do a quilted wall hanging I'll photograph the steps.