How to bind a quilt

How much binding

Measure around the quilt, and add 12″ to join the ends. Cut that many inches of 2½″ strips across the width of fabric, allowing about a strip’s width for each diagonal join. At 42″ width of fabric:

For example, a 60″ × 72″ throw is 264″ around. With 12″ more, that’s 276″: 7 strips, joined, give 279″. For any size, see the quilt binding calculator.

Preparing the binding

1. Trim the quilt square, cutting the batting and backing even with the top.

2. Cut the strips 2½″ wide across the width of fabric, and trim off the selvages.

3. Join them with diagonal seams. Lay one strip right side up, and the next face down across its end at a right angle. Sew corner to corner, trim to ¼″ and press the seam open. A diagonal seam spreads the bulk, so it doesn’t make a lump in the folded binding.

4. Fold it in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and press. This is double-fold binding: two layers at the edge, where a quilt wears most.

Sewing it on

1. Start partway down one side, not at a corner. Lay the binding’s raw edges along the quilt’s edge on the front, and leave a tail of about 8″ unsewn.

2. Sew with a ¼″ seam through all the layers, with a walking foot if you have one. Stop ¼″ before the first corner and backstitch.

3. Miter the corner. Fold the binding up, away from the quilt, at 45°. Then fold it back down along the next side, the fold level with the edge you just sewed. Start sewing again at that fold.

4. Go around every corner the same way, and stop about 10″ from where you started.

5. Join the ends. Lay the two tails along the edge, overlapping. Trim the overlap to the binding’s width, 2½″. Open them, join them with a diagonal seam as before, check it fits, trim, and sew the last stretch down.

6. Fold it to the back over the raw edges so the fold just covers the stitching. Hold it with binding clips and sew it down by hand with a blind stitch, folding each corner into a miter on the back as you reach it.

Straight or bias binding

Strips cut across the width, as here, are fine for straight edges. For a quilt with curved or scalloped edges, cut bias binding, at 45° to the selvage, which bends around a curve without puckering. It takes a square of fabric instead of strips: 26⅜″ square for the 60″ × 72″ throw.

Common mistakes

• Wavy edges. The binding was stretched as it was sewn. Let it lie, and ease it on.
• Corners that won’t miter. The stitching went past ¼″ from the edge at the corner. Stop exactly ¼″ from the edge, backstitch, and fold.
• Binding that’s too short to join. Start sewing well down a side, and stop well before you get back, so there’s room to work.
• A binding that’s loose and empty. The batting was trimmed short of the edge. Trim it even with the top, so it fills the binding.