I had a beautiful binding fabric all ready to use, Art Gallery voile in Praline Honey (Village Haberdashery stocks it here). This has a silky light texture and is a beautiful rich golden colour. I wasn't sure if the Sizzix would cut voile cleanly but it powered through with no problems. This die is extra long and cuts the length of the strip and not the top and bottom so it cuts folded 44" fabric into 44" long strips. Voile is wider width so I needed to clip the end of these strips to finish them off but it still cuts far more accurately and quickly than I can on a tricky fabric like this.
As the fabric is lighter weight a smaller size machine needle helps, 70 Microtex are great for voile and lawn. For joining the binding strips I used a leader to stop the machine from swallowing the edge of the fine fabric.
A leader is a little scrap of material folded over, placed under your machine to start a seam. You stitch the leader and then keep sewing onto your seam- my machine doesn't need this help on quilting weight but anything fine or slippy benefits from this.
I stitched the binding on to the front of the quilt as usual, but on the back instead of pinning like crazy so I can machine from the front I used a little basting glue. I used Roxanne Baste it which is a temporary fabric glue with a long fine tip so tiny amounts can be applied.
A fabric glue stick doesn't work well on a big sticking job like this. The applicator on the Baste-it is very helpful at getting the glue exactly where you want it. I worked on around 24" at a time and applied glue to the quilt seam allowance.
A fabric glue stick doesn't work well on a big sticking job like this. The applicator on the Baste-it is very helpful at getting the glue exactly where you want it. I worked on around 24" at a time and applied glue to the quilt seam allowance.
Clover Wonder clips are perfect for holding down the binding until the glue dries. I used a pin for each corner.
Once tacked down with the glue I flipped the quilt to the right side to stitch in the ditch just catching the binding on the back. You do need to make sure that your spool and bobbin threads match the front fabric and binding fabric.
This really sped up the binding process. it meant no unpicking and re-sewing which is what I usually have to do especially at the corners. The corners were the best bit, it made for excellent corners! This is the binding from the back (top of pic with label) and front, (bottom of pic).
I hope this helps any of you who like to use machine binding.
The Baby Bear Paw quilt plan is here
Making the blocks is here
Completing the top is here
Spiral quilting is here
Interesting method, have to try it sometime. Thanks for showing!
ReplyDeleteI'm usually a hand-binder, but really need to try this method. Thanks for the tips! It looks awesome.
ReplyDeleteAnother great reason to go to the fabric store - to get more notions!
ReplyDeleteWeirdly I'm opposite of you. I've machine stitched binding on small projects and hand stitched for quilts. But using this method, I am going to try it on my next quilt. THis makes so much sense. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful and simple. Thanks so much.
ReplyDeleteI am just making my first EVER quilt and tentatively at that, too!
Lots of Love,
Bundana
@ http://www.bundana.blogspot.co.uk
How clever! I think glue is the missing piece to my machine binding success. Thanks Kerry!! : )
ReplyDeleteOoh I love hand finishing binding, but this way does look great, (if I tried, guessing it would be accompanied by swearing and missing patches and take twice as long!!!). May have to make a mug rug to try it out xxx
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a great trip I'll have to try it!
ReplyDeleteI am so crap at machine finishing the binding, no matter how much I pin! Where can I get the glue, I obviously need to try it.
ReplyDeleteoh wow - I tried machine binding once and gave up because it was just too uneven on the back and I'm too much of a perfectionist! But this glue looks like it could be the answer to my prayers! I love the voile binding, the colour is gorgeous, Sx
ReplyDeleteThanks for another great, informative post, Kerry! Will do a search and order some of that glue. I love your tutorial for binding small items; I'll look at Rita's for more details for binding my first-ever quilt.
ReplyDeleteI need some of that glue!
ReplyDeleteThanks for another great, informative post, Kerry! Will do a search and order some of that glue. I love your tutorial for binding small items; I'll look at Rita's for more details for binding my first-ever quilt.
ReplyDeletei have to unpick and resew so much of my machine stitched binding that it is often not worth it. thanks for posting about this product. i'll have to look for it :)
ReplyDeleteSmart idea! Never would have thought of using the fabric glue.
ReplyDeleteThis might be just the ticket to move my machine quilting from very amateurish to a more professional look! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful....love to see your colors and your tips...smiles..Renee
ReplyDeleteI will need to try this method. I normally hand stitch the back because I cannot get the back to have a even clean stitched look.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the tutorial!!!
It seems machine binding is hard for me. I missed part as I got even I used the wonder clips. Thank you for the tips on using the glue! I need to get that order for next machine binding quilt. Oh.. I am need to catch up your posts here..
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of machine binding but mine never looks as neat as yours does (yours looks really really neat!). Thanks for the tip and all the links for the Baby Bear Paw too!
ReplyDeleteHi!! It is also good way to binding the items, but you can also try for better
ReplyDeleteglue machine which works efficiently and effective one. Thanks for sharing!!
We have a large prayer quilt ministry in our church and we machine stitch all our bindings. I always handsewed them before this, and still handsew any wall quilts, just because. But, after 17 years of quilting we've discovered this. I'm teaching 4 women to quilt and this is next week's project. Let me suggest that when you get the binding in place use a dry hot iron for a few seconds to set the glue in place, and dry it immediately. If any gets on the outside of the quilt or binding, it'll wash out. But heat setting it with a hot dry iron is the final trick.
ReplyDeleteGood point! I do use a hot dry iron these days when I use this technique.
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