To hand saw or not?

What is your favourite way to attach a binding tape on your quilts?
I almost all the time machine stitch a binding tape on the front side of quilt and turn it to the back and hand stitch it. There is a lot of how to do it by machine for quicker finish out there but I don’t do that.
The reason for it is it’s neater, stress free and in the end quicker. For me anyway.
It’s neater because there is no visible stitch on either side of quilt. It’s stress free and quicker because I never have to have the necessary of unpicking and re-attaching of binding since stitches I just made by machine are messy. Maybe I am just bad at sewing straight lines straight with my machine and not trying hard enough to achieve it. But for now I really not bothered to do so. Also the width of binding tape turned to the back is always not even while front side is perfectly even which I haven’t figure out what I am doing wrong. And this makes final stitches never parallel to the edges. I wish I could but I gave this up a long time ago.
Anyway, I tell people to hand stitch binding to finish but never really have had time explain how because we all know how to hand stitch, don’t we? But I am writing this post for if there is somebody need to.
 
While I am hand stitching, I don’t pin or clip binding because I am lazy it takes unnecessary time away from me. Well actual reason is when I started quilt making I couldn’t get those handy tools here. So I developed the way I don’t need them.
I roll the binding about four inches away from where the last stitch is and catch them by small and/or ring fingers and then catch the rest with thumb and index finger. Fingers further away don’t move until I run out space but thumb is continuously rolling binding and sliding to the left as I sew. And when I run out the space four inches later, I re-position my left hand.
I stitch binding facing this way. The primarily reason for that was to fold miter corner opposite direction to avoid bulk. But now I realise it’s easier for hand sewing as well.
catching the binding 01catching the binding 02
My stitches are big for this. About 4-5mm. Long time ago I stitched like doing applique then one day I realised it’s more less like hemming and I don’t need any small stitches. Since it’s big.
stitch length
Insert a needle right beside the last stitch and catch a minimum amount of binding. That makes stitches disappear.
 
The corner. Stitch it up to the very end.
corner 01
Put a needle to come out on a diagonal line and close to the tip of corner.corner 02
Make a few stitch.corner 04corner 05
Don’t forget to catch inner corner.corner 03
 
And don’t forget to hide ends of thread. Buy it under a binding or wadding.
Enjoy quilting!
 
 
 

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5 Comments

Tami Von Zalez
February 16, 2018 6:40 pm

I hand stitch my binding. It is practically my favorite part because I hand sewed for years (and still do). It means the quilt is nearly finished and I can relax in front of the TV and do it. I think binding is a very important element, it can really make the quilt pop!

Lisa's * Everyday Life
February 16, 2018 9:28 pm

I usually hand stitch mine but sometimes if on time crunch I might machine stitch it

Melanie McNeil
February 16, 2018 9:50 pm

I stitch some by hand and some by machine. Now and then the machined ones look great. Mostly they don’t. The hand-stitched ones always look good. I do my corners just like yours. I like being able to catch the miter with a stitch or two.

helen
February 16, 2018 11:23 pm

definitely hand sew. I have machine bound the underneath twice, once successfully, the first time less so. I still prefer the hand sewing, and actually enjoy it.

Julie Fukuda
February 17, 2018 10:45 am

of course I hand sew the binding, making sure the corners are mitered nicely, and then hand turn to the back just the same way you do it … except in the other direction because I am left-handed. I do pin the binding in place as I sew, because I use a bias binding and want it to be nice and flat.