Tutorial: How to Join the Ends of Quilt Binding

Me again! Two days in a row, weird! I'm back, as promised, to show you how I join the ends of the quilt binding when finishing my quilts. It has taken me a LOOOOOOONG time to figure out a good method for this, and an even longer time to remember how. Now that I've got it down, I'm comfortable with sharing it with all of you

 I almost always cut 2 1/2"xWOF strips of fabric to make my binding. *WOF= Width of Fold, which is generally 42 usable inches. To figure out how many strips to cut, add up all four sides of your quilt and divide that number by 42. For example, my quilt was 82"x90". 82+82+90+90=344. 344 divided by 42= 8.2. Always round up, so in this case, I cut 9 strips of 2 1/2"x42". Join them all together, then roll it up to make it tidier for stitching. 

Until I can write my own tutorial, click here for a good how-to on making quilt binding, 

and here for how to attach it.

You will need:

-Fabric scissors

-Ruler with a 45* angle

-Fabric marker

-Pins

 Once you've got your binding mostly stitched on, you are ready to join the ends. Make sure to give yourself plenty of space between the loose ends to work! 20" is ideal, but make the most of what you can with the size of your quilt.  

Now is a good time to trim the other binding end to a 45* angle if you haven't already done so. Align the 45* line with the bottom edge of your opened up binding; use the fabric marker to draw the line. Notice that this is the tail on the left.

Open up the binding tail on the right, aligning the bottom raw edge with the edge of the quilt. Make sure there are no gaps or wrinkles in the binding and that it is perfectly smooth and matched up with the quilt! Pin it in place so it doesn't shift while you're working on the rest. 

Place the tail on the left on top of the pinned tail on the right.

Use the ruler as a guide to draw the cut angle of the tail onto the binding below it.

Remove the top tail, measure 1/2" to the LEFT of the original line; cut on this new line. This accommodates the 1/4" seam allowance for both sides.

Place the tails right sides together; pin in place and stitch. 

Because the ends are at an angle, you will have little triangles sticking out of both sides by 1/4". This part always confused me, so I took a picture at a distance and close up so you can see how this is supposed to look. 

Now all you have to do is finger press that seam open, refold the binding on its original crease and finish stitching it to the quilt. Well done, you! 

I'll do my best to remember to take photos of the making and attaching steps the next time I'm working on a quilt. I hope you've found this tutorial to be simple and straight-forward. 

Happy sewing!

-Kristi

PS For details on the above quilt, click here.

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