Blind stitch for binding

Hmmm -good idea! Something else I haven't tried yet. Should work!
I often sew binding by machine, stitching on the front, folding to the back,
then top-stitching. I make sure the cut edge of the sandwich, after
attaching the binding is perfectly smooth. Then I trim off a quarter-inch
point from the corners. Then over to the ironing board and press. The folded
edge of the binding needs to come just three hairs over the stitching line.
To make the corner miters smoother, make sure that the folded-under bits of
the binding are on both sides of the miter, if that makes sense. Then
hand-stitch the miters closed. If you have pressed everything perfectly, it
is then possible to top stitch from the back, and the stitching line will
fall in the ditch on the front.
If you wanted to do it this way with a blind stitch, then the binding fold
would only need to come one hair over the first stitching line. I think.
Roberta in D

"AliceW" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
. ..
Has anyone tried this method of sewing the binding to the back of a quilt?
I know it's not supposed to be used for heirloom quilts or show quilts,
but I have some quilts that are scrap quilts and basic utility quilts that
I would love to find an easier way to sew the back binding down. Don't
want it to look schlocky but don't want to put the long hours of hand
sewing into it if I can avoid it.

Thanks! I hope this hasn't been a recent topic that I missed.

--
AliceW

Alice:
You surely can machine sew the binding on this project.
I just finished a quilt where I sewed to the front,
trimmed, pinned to back and then did my decorative
stitch FROM THE FRONT! The key is that when I pinned to
the back, I *made sure* that the folded edge just
covered the stitching line. Of course I used thread to
exactly match the binding fabric. Try it, you'll like
it! PAT in VA/USA

AliceW wrote:

Thanks everyone. I have already sewn the binding onto the front so I
think I'd better just bite the bullet and sew this one by hand. But I
will really try the machine method the next time! Great tips as usual!

To get pretty mitered corners, be aware of how the
tucks turn. Check it out on the sewn side, then make
sure the tuck is in the OPPOSITE direction when you
turn the binding. This makes for a neater and more
precise miter. HTH.
PAT in VA/USA

AliceW wrote:

I know the corners are a bear! I am anal to a fault about my corners.
I was wondering how to handle them. I appreciate the advance warning.
I don't want to rush through any of my quilts but there is a certain
little guy who just turned 3 and needs a bed quilt since he is going
into a "big boy" bed within the next few weeks. He wants "boats" on his
bed, like Pop-Pop's boat. So, I need to start this quilt rather quickly
you understand.

Alice in NJ

Talking to myself ... bad form! LOL To clarify: you
want the tucks turned in opposite directions on the
opposing sides of the binding. You do not want to flip
the existing tuck. I hope this is more clear.
PAT

Pat in Virginia wrote:

To get pretty mitered corners, be aware of how the tucks turn. Check it
out on the sewn side, then make sure the tuck is in the OPPOSITE
direction when you turn the binding. This makes for a neater and more
precise miter. HTH.
PAT in VA/USA
..

On Aug 31, 4:35 pm, Pat in Virginia wrote:
Talking to myself ... bad form! LOL To clarify: you
want the tucks turned in opposite directions on the
opposing sides of the binding. You do not want to flip
the existing tuck. I hope this is more clear.
PAT

Pat in Virginia wrote:
To get pretty mitered corners, be aware of how the tucks turn. Check it
out on the sewn side, then make sure the tuck is in the OPPOSITE
direction when you turn the binding. This makes for a neater and more
precise miter. HTH.
PAT in VA/USA

.

As Mud Pat! lol, no just kidding... I think I know what you mean and
think I do it like that already. But I'll pay closer attention to the
next one I do. Elly

If you're interested, Sharon Schamber has a free binding lesson on her
web site. Go to http://www.sharonschamber.com/Free%20Stuff.htm and
click on the Binding Lesson; it's well illustrated. I love her glue
technique; it really makes getting that binding even very easy. But if
you use it, be sure to heat set it, or it may not stick. The glue washes
out very easily, and the tip she uses on the bottle is readily available
at JoAnn's or Michael's, among other places. Look in the tole painting
section.

--
Sandy in Henderson, near Las Vegas
sfoster 1 (at) earthlink (dot) net (remove/change the obvious)
http://www.sandymike.net

On Aug 31, 3:30 am, Tia Mary wrote:
Polly Esther wrote:
Just one more. You will not die if you have to baste the corners. It will
still be a heap faster than handstitching the whole quilt. Polly

I guess I will take my life in my own hands and explain again that I
always do my binding by machine using a decorative stitch. I also put
my binding on in ONE pass -- I don't sew the back side down and then
turn to the front. I'm pretty sure it was Mary Ellen Hopkins who came
up with this process. Anyway, I determine the width fabric I need, fold
in half and then fold the ends to the center. I end up with something
that looks like store bought bias binding but is double thickness and is
straight of grain (assuming there are no curves in the edge of the quilt).
I then put this binding over the raw edge of the quilt after I have
put the quilt edge through the serger -- makes it a lot easier. I
start in the center of the "bottom" and sew the binding down to the edge
of the quilt -- NO stitches beyond the edge of the quilt or you won't be
able to make the mitered corner turn. Break your thread and take the
quilt from the machine. Now you can easily AND cleanly turn the binding
to the next side because those stitches you have just completed hold the
binding down and you can make a nice neat 45 degree mitered corner.
By using a decorative stitch, I am certain to get both the front and
the back side of the binding stitched down in just one pass through the
machine. My favourite stitch is either the feather stitch (the one
someone said looks like chicken feet) or the one I call "hills &
valleys" which is a series of small, large, small /\ stitches to one
side and then the same series of stitches to the other side. I also
like to use variegated thread which helps in hiding any instances of
pilot error.
I haven't checked online to see if this method of applying quilt
binding is described any better or with photos but it certainly does
make binding application a LOT quicker and more enjoyable, at least for
me. I join the ends in a diagonal seam so that it's not noticeable and
just looks like the rest of the seams for making the length of binding.
It's way difficult to try and explain how I do this but if anyone was
interested I would be happy to give it a try. CiaoMeow ^;;^

PAX, Tia Mary ^;;^ (RCTQ Queen of Kitties)
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about
their whiskers!
Visit my Photo albums at http://community.webshots.com/user/tiamary

This sounds very interesting Tia Maria! I must give it a shot next
time I make a quick quilt.... errr when have I ever made a quilt
quickly?... hmmm Maybe in the next 2 weeks before out exhibit on
17th! Elly

On Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:14:52 -0400, "AliceW"
wrote:

Has anyone tried this method of sewing the binding to the back of a quilt?
I know it's not supposed to be used for heirloom quilts or show quilts, but
I have some quilts that are scrap quilts and basic utility quilts that I
would love to find an easier way to sew the back binding down. Don't want
it to look schlocky but don't want to put the long hours of hand sewing into
it if I can avoid it.

Thanks! I hope this hasn't been a recent topic that I missed.

You can use the machine's blind hem stitch a different way than was
originally intended. It is often used as an applique stitch by just
stitching along the top of the fabrics with the straight parts of the
stitch running on the background fabric close beside the applique
piece and the little zig zag part of the stitch zigs over to stitch
through the edge of the applique piece. You would set the stitch
length to something fairly short and the width to narrow so the zig
just barely catches the edge. You could do the same with a binding,
but I think I would set the width a little wider so it catches more
than just one thread at the folded edge.

Of course there is also no reason you can't simply straight stitch the
binding on both sides of a utility quilt.
Debra in VA
See my quilts at
http://community.webshots.com/user/debplayshere

On Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:07:26 -0500, "Polly Esther"
wrote:

Alice, try the one that looks like chicken tracks. (maybe 'feather'
stitch?) . . . or the one that looks like little hills drawn with a single
row of stitches (sort of a scallop). Any oops that you have with the blind
stitch is going to be visible 15 feet away on a galloping horse. If you
can, do your stitching from the top side of the quilt so you can control the
appearance. The SM will try to bog down at the corners so you'll want to
release the pressure of the presser foot some. Tell your SM that You are in
control and use the hand wheel at the corners if you have to in order to
have a uniform stitch. I didn't mean to make this sound so tedious; just
thought I'd arm you with all the tricks. Polly

That is the second time in two days that I have read about using the
feather stitch. The other was about applique. I'm gonna have to use
this stitch.
Debra in VA
See my quilts at
http://community.webshots.com/user/debplayshere

You did a great job on the initial explanation, but thanks for the
clarification.

--
AliceW


"Pat in Virginia" wrote in message
...
Talking to myself ... bad form! LOL To clarify: you want the tucks
turned in opposite directions on the opposing sides of the binding. You do
not want to flip the existing tuck. I hope this is more clear.
PAT

Pat in Virginia wrote:

To get pretty mitered corners, be aware of how the tucks turn. Check it
out on the sewn side, then make sure the tuck is in the OPPOSITE
direction when you turn the binding. This makes for a neater and more
precise miter. HTH.
PAT in VA/USA
.