I have been working on a little project as a gift for somebody so I don't want to reveal yet.
It involves these
and whilst finishing it off and binding it I thought it might be useful, especially for newer sewers, to put a little tutorial up about mitred corners- these were new to me as I hadn't made quilts until the last year- and I struggled when I started. They key to success is the iron!
Tutorial... How to Mitre Corners when Binding
(Download PDF here)
1. Prepare your binding, it can be single as in the pic or doubled over e.g. for a hard wearing quilt. It can also be bias cut or straight grain.
2. I start joining my binding a few inches before a corner, leave a long tail of binding for joining when you come to the end. Stitch your binding to your fabric, use 1/4" seam. Stop sewing and secure with a few back stitches when you are 1/4" from the end of the fabric edge at a corner.
3.Take the fabric strip and fold it back (see arrow). You will get a nice diagonal line, an angle of 45 degrees and the binding strip will line up with the fabric edge that you are about to sew down. Press the diagonal crease.
4. Now, keeping the diagonal crease where it is, fold the binding strip downwards (see arrow). Along the top left edge of the corner there will be a horizontal fold where the binding fabric is doubled over, the rest of the binding will be lying along the next edge to be sewn. Press the horizontal fold. Place a pin to keep everything in place. You will now sew down this edge using 1/4" seam allowance as before and starting at the very top of the corner. Sew down until you get to the next corner, repeat stages 1-4 for all the corners.
It should look like this
5. You can now flip the fabric over, press and sew the biding down on reverse either by hand using slip stitch or using your machine. A lovely mitred corner- very neat!
If you have any problems do email and let me know- my contact stuff is on my profile- see "about me".
You are welcome to link to this tutorial on your blog.
You are welcome to link to this tutorial on your blog.
Happy sewing! I will put a new tutorial up with the project that you can only see a bit of once it has reached its recipient x
