Easy Faced Quilt Binding – a quilt from Itty Bitty Handmade!

Hello again!  This is Hetal from Itty Bitty Handmade.  In our last guest post we taught you how to do the easy quilt basting method that’s used in our baby quilt kits   This time, we’ll show you a hassle free way to bind a quilt.  As co-founder, Eva, and I were learning about quilting and practicing, one area where we were often getting tripped up was the binding.  It was at the point where we had this awesome quilt together, and then when we went to sew the binding, the binding would get pulled unevenly and we would end up with unsightly puckers.  Arghh, puckers in the binding were the bane of our early quilts.  

This easy method makes the binding process pucker free and easy to sew without needing a quilting foot so let’s jump right in.   In our kits we’ve included the single folded bias tape pre-made, but you can easily make your own.  To make this single fold bias simply start with 4” wide bias cut fabric strips that are slightly longer than each side of your quilt.  Bias cut is simply a technique for cutting fabric diagonal to the grain.  This special cut gives the fabric more flexibility when sewn.  Starting with the 4” wide fabric strips, fold each strip in half along the length.  Use an iron to make a nice strong crease.  Next, sew each strip closed along the length, by sewing a ¼” away from the raw fabric edges.

You’ll now have 4 strips that are each 2” wide with a folded edge on one side and raw fabric edges on the other side.

Next is the critical step in prepping your bias to make sewing it on your quilt easy.   We’re going to use a fusible tape that we’ll adhere to the bias.  This fusible tapewill later allow us to adhere and stabilize our binding strips to our quilt, making the binding easy to sew.  We use a basic fusible tape in ¾” width that’s designed to melt and adhere 2 fabrics together (such as HeatnBond Hem).  This is the type of fusible tape that is often used when doing no-sew hems, and can be found at any sewing / craft store.    We want to secure this fusible tape to our binding without it sticking to our iron.  To do this, you’ll need a strip of parchment paper that will shield the iron.  We start by tearing off about a foot of fusible tape.  We lay this fusible tape along the length of the bias stripsas close as possible to the folded edge. 

 Next, lay your parchment paper on top of the 12” fusible tape, ensuring that you cover the fusible tape completely.  Next, iron over the parchment paper until the fusible tape melts onto your bias strip. 

You’ll see that the fusible tape starts to look a little clear once it’s melted.  Now lift off your parchment and repeat this process until you have fusible tape along the folded edge of each of your bias strips.  

At this point, your strips are completely prepped, and we can move ahead with attaching the strips to the quilt.  With the method we’re using, one side of your quilt will have the bias edging visible while the other side will not.  With our quilt kits, we’ve chosen to have the bias edging visible on the back of our quilts, but you can select which face of the quilt you would like to have the bias visible.  You’ll start by sewing your bias strips down onto the face of the quilt on which you do not want to have your bias visible.  Lay this side of your quilt face up and lay one of your bias strips along oneof the quilt edges. 

 Lay down the bias strip with the fusible tape side face up, with the raw edges of the bias strip aligned to the raw edges of your quilt.   Overhang your bias strips slightly so they extend a little past each corner of the quilt.   Now sew the bias strip down onto the quilt, sewing ½” away from the raw edges. 

 Once sewn, trim your overhanging ends of bias strip. 

Repeat this process for each of the 4 sides of the quilt.  Your bias strips will overlap on each of the 4 corners.  

On each corner, we’ll sew the loose flap of bias tape down so the ends of the bias tape are all secured down. 

Next we’ll pull the bias strips over to the other side of the quilt. We start by pulling each of the corners over first.  Be sure to really invert each corner over well so that the corners pop out nicely. 

 Once the corners are turned over, we’re going to iron our bias strips down onto the other side. 

The bias strips will get pulled all the way over before ironing so that the bias strips are no longer visible on the side that they were initially sewn down onto.   As you iron, the fusible tape that was applied earlier to the bias strips will now melt and adhere the strips in place. 

The hard part is now complete!  With your bias strips attached securely to the quilt, all that’s left is to sew down your bias strips.  Sew a small distance away from the folded edge of the bias strips.  

With your bias strips securely locked in place, you’ll be pucker free and end up with a perfectly sewn finished look!

If you’re looking for a first time quilt or your already an experienced quilter and looking for a super easy baby quilt check out our Itty Bitty Quilt Kits which take you through both this binding method and our super quick and easy glue basting method we wrote a few weeks ago here at SewCanShe.

Happy Quilting!

Eva and Hetal

P.S. Check out all the free quilt patterns from SewCanShe below: