How to Add Binding to a Wall Quilt

Take care in binding your wall quilt to ensure a beautiful finished project.

Adding binding is the final step to finishing your quilt. Take as much care now as you did stitching the top and quilting and you'll be rewarded with a beautiful finished product. Because your wall quilt won't experience the wear and tear of a bed quilt, you can use use single binding, which saves fabric over the more durable, double-layered, French binding method.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring tape
• Fabric for binding
• Ruler
• Scissors or rotary cutter
• Iron
• Sewing machine with even-feed or walking presser foot
• Thread
• Pins
• Needles

Instructions

Prepare the Binding Strips

1. Determine the length of binding needed. Calculate the perimeter of your quilt with this formula: (length x 2) + (width x 2). Add 15 inches to allow for mitering corners and finishing the ends. Allow about a yard of fabric to cut the binding.

2. Decide on single or double -- French -- binding to determine the width of your strips. For single binding, allow double the desired width plus 1/2 inch for seam allowances. Single binding is generally quite narrow, so, for 3/8-inch-wide binding, cut your strips 1.25 inches wide.

   With French binding, you'll need wider strips. For quilts with cotton batting, 2-inch-wide strips are recommended, and for synthetic batting, which has a higher loft, 2.25-inch-wide strips work best, according to quilting experts Marianne Fons and Liz Porter.

3. Cut the binding strips. While bed quilts require bias-cut bindings for extra durability, you can use straight-grain strips on your wall quilt. Cut crosswise for strips with more give than lengthwise cuts.

4. Join the strips. Layer two strips perpendicular to each other, right sides together, and stitch on the diagonal. Cut a seam allowance to 1/4 inch and press it open. Re-measure the length of the finished strip to be sure you have enough material: perimeter plus 15 inches extra for corners. Joining on the diagonal reduces bulk at the seams, so your binding stays smooth all the way around the quilt.

5. For single binding, fold and press a 1/4-inch lip -- wrong sides together. If you are using French binding, fold the strip in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and press it.

Attach the Binding

1. Attach the hanging sleeve before binding the quilt.

2. Machine-stitch the binding to the quilt. Use an even-feed or walking presser foot. Choose a starting point along one side of the quilt, rather than at a corner. With right sides facing, align the raw edges of quilt top and binding. For single binding, the pressed edge will be facing up at your left. For French binding, the folded edge will be to your left, with two raw edges matching the raw edge of the quilt top.

   Leave 4 inches of unstitched binding strip hanging, to be used for finishing. Sew binding to the quilt top with a 1/4-inch seam allowance, stitching through all quilt layers until 1/4 inch from the corner.

3. Remove the quilt from the machine and fold the binding strip away from you, forming a 45-degree angle. Now bring the binding strip back toward you, again lining up raw edges. This will become a mitered corner during final stitching. Continue to stitch the binding until you reach the next corner and repeat the step.

4. Sew to the beginning point and overlap by about 1 inch. Trim the excess binding.

5. Trim any excess batting and quilt backing before hand finishing the binding to the back of the quilt. Bring the folded edge of the binding over to the back of the quilt and blind stitch it to the quilt backing. At the corners, fold over the unstitched binding to form a miter and stitch through all layers to fasten the mitered corner on the front of the quilt as well.

6. Trim any hanging threads and you're finished.

References

• "Quilter's Complete Guide"; Marianne Fons and Liz Porter; 2000
• Red Pepper Quilts; Binding Tutorial; November 2009