More Quilt Binding...

A couple years ago my friend, Kate, gave me a gift certificate to a fabric store for my birthday-she knows me so well!  I used it to buy some charm squares to make a quilt.  Charm squares are precut to 5'' and come in a pack of coordinating colors.  I had never worked with precut squares before and it was a lot of fun to just sit down and start sewing without having to cut everything out first.  It took awhile for me to finish this quilt as it wasn't high priority.  I am glad I waited as I ended up using minky for the backing and my ruffler foot for the binding.  The quilt is made using a disappearing 9 patch pattern which I will talk about at a later date.

Here is how I did the ruffled binding. Quilts are always "quilted" before the binding is added.

1. For the ruffle around the edge I cut pieces 4'' wide and double (plus a bit) the length of the perimeter of the quilt.  This was folded in half and sewn with the ruffler foot on the raw edge.

 2. Pin the ruffle on top of the quilt raw edges together (this means the folded edge of the ruffle faces the middle of the quilt).  If you didn't make enough ruffle make some more and add it!  In this photo you can see the actual bias tape layered over the ruffle.

3. To make bias tape sew together 2'' wide strips and run them through your bias tape maker or use store bought bias tape.  You can purchase a bias tape maker for what it would cost to buy bias tape for this entire project.  

 4. Open out the bias tape and sew through all the layers.

5. Fold bias tape to the back side and use a wavy stitch over the bias tape.  This hides many mistakes as you are sewing crooked on purpose. :)

Enjoy!