Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know! I was asked a couple of weeks ago about my “perfectly mitered” binding corners, and it made me realize how useful a tutorial would be. I've been doing my bindings this way for at least 20 years, so I've had a lot of practice to this point. But, I think I can share what I have learned and maybe it’ll help you too!
For the first few quilts, you might want to mark your seam allowance at the corners before you bind. This will give you a strong visual for keeping your seam allowance consistent going into and out of each corner. I have a ¼” seam allowance, so I marked the last couple of inches closest to the corners in both directions. This creates an X where the miter will start.
I started sewing the binding on the quilt, and as I approached the corner, I put a pin through the binding right into the X marking on the quilt.
Once I came up to the pin, I dropped the needle and lifted the presser foot to see that the needle was indeed right where the pin was. Then, I pulled the pin and pivoted the quilt to sew at an angle right off the corner.
Here you can see the angle seam pivoting from the X point.
Take the binding tail and lift it straight up in line with the next edge of the quilt, then fold it straight down along that edge. This creates a fold in the corner that should be at right angles with the two edges of the quilt. This is not the time for creative folding methods :) boring is good here and if you see something that doesn’t look at all like a 90-degree angle, work to get it squared up before sewing it down the next side.
Start from off the end of the quilt and sew the binding down along the next edge.
Now, the binding has been sewn to the back all the way around, and I've joined the two ends (see tutorial for that process here). It's time to topstitch the binding to the front of the quilt. You can also follow this process of rolling the binding from front to back and hand-stitching it down. I am topstitching the binding very close to the folded edge. When I come up to each corner, I fold the bottom binding edge up first and then wrap the side binding over it.
I use a stiletto to really push the crease into the fold all the way. This makes for a sharp corner where the miter comes together at the inner folded edge with ease.
I hold the corner in place with my stiletto while I sew right up to it. You can also pin this part, but I'm so used to using that stiletto that I seldom pin these days.
Now, you have nice sharp mitered corners all the way around! Don’t worry if you don’t nail it the first time, take it slow and practice, practice, practice :)
Happy Sunday everyone,
Krista
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