Binding fix

A number of you were curious about my last post about how to fix those waves .... so here goes!

Do you see these pieces of black yarn at the corner of this quilt? They are the start and finish of my fix. I weave a piece of yarn all throughout the binding (on the inside).



Truly, it really does flatten out my quilt so that it lays flat. Not only that, but if you have a wall hanging with one end that droops a bit, this will help to square it up. Keep in mind, though, that it will not perform miracles. You have to do your part first with sewing on the correct size border, etc. When I do this, my binding feels and looks fuller.

When my quilt is trimmed, I leave at least ½” of batting and backing and my bindings strips are cut at 2-1/2”. I use a single strand of bulky knitting yarn or two strands of 4- ply knitting yarn (if you do double fold over binding, any colour of yarn will do). Yarn must be acrylic as wool yarn will draw moths and they will chew a hole through the cotton to the wool (and we don’t want that).


Starting at one end of a quilt, thread your yarn needle with the yarn and slide the needle inside the binding. The yarn that you see hanging down is the end from the one side of the quilt that was just done.






Push your needle along the binding until you see the binding gathered up. Now, hold onto your needle (hmm, perhaps I should have had that manicure after all) and ease the yarn by grabbing the end of the quilt where you started and pull back gently so that the quilt is no longer gathered. Continue to the end of one side and slide your needle out, cut your yarn leaving a couple of inches. Do this on all four sides of your quilt.






I lay my quilt out on the floor and check to see if all sides lay flat. If one side doesn’t, just pull on the yarn gently until the quilt is flat. Carefully, clip the yarn as close to where it emerges from the binding. You don’t have to secure the yarn as it is not going anywhere.

It works for me with my style of quilts. Please, do whatever works best for you … leave them as is or fix them … it’s your quilt and it’s your choice! :o)

Have a nice day!