Flat, Straight, and Finished: Why the Way You Bind Matters Part 1
When I first started entering quilts in competitions, every single quilt came back with the same comment:
“Quilt should lay flat and hang straight.”
Every. Single. One.
Now, I appreciated the critique. Really, I did. But it would have been a whole lot more helpful if the judge had also added, “Here is why it is happening and what you can do about it.” Because at the time, I had no idea. I was quilting carefully. I was measuring every time I rolled the quilt to make sure it stayed square. I was doing all the things I thought I was supposed to do. And still, when the judging sheet came back, there it was again.
Quilt should lay flat and hang straight. It became the comment I dreaded most.
For the longest time, I thought the problem had to be my quilting. Maybe I was quilting too heavily in some areas and not enough in others. Maybe I was pulling the quilt out of square on the frame. Maybe I was doing something wrong while advancing the quilt. And yes, those things can absolutely affect how a quilt hangs. But in my case, that was not the real problem. The real culprit was my binding.
Once I finally figured that out, everything changed. I started getting quilts back without that dreaded comment, and I also started understanding that how you finish the quilt matters just as much as the quilting. Today, I want to share why my binding was causing my quilts to have more waves than a royal wedding, and how I finally fixed it.
The Problem Was Hiding in Plain Sight
Binding seems simple enough.
You cut strips. You sew them together. You fold them. You attach them to the quilt. You turn the binding to the back and stitch it down.
Done, right?
Not exactly.
The problem with binding is that it looks like the last little finishing step, but it has a huge impact on how the quilt behaves. If the binding is stretched, eased in, pulled, distorted, or attached unevenly, it can change the entire outside edge of the quilt.
And if the outside edge is wavy, the quilt is going to have a hard time laying flat or hanging straight no matter how beautifully it is quilted.
This was the part I missed for years.
I was treating binding like a last hurry up and get it over with and finished chore, when really it was part of the structure of the quilt.
Two Things I Had to Understand First
Before I could fix my binding problem, I had to understand two very important things:
- How fabric behaves depending on how it is cut
- How a sewing machine actually moves fabric
Once those two things clicked, I could finally see what was happening.
Fabric Grain Matters More Than You Think
Fabric can be cut in three basic ways in relation to how it was woven: straight grain, cross grain, and bias.
The straight grain runs the length of the fabric, parallel to the selvage. This is usually the most stable direction of the fabric and has the least amount of stretch.
The cross grain runs across the width of the fabric, from selvage to selvage. This is the way most quilters cut binding strips. It is convenient, efficient, and perfectly acceptable for many quilts.
The bias runs diagonally across the fabric. Bias has the most stretch, which can be very useful when you need binding to go around curves, scallops, or other shaped edges.
Here is the part that gets people into trouble: cross grain binding has more stretch than you might think. It is not as stretchy as bias, but it is not as stable as straight grain either. It has some give to it. That little bit of give can be useful, but it can also create problems if you accidentally stretch or ease extra binding onto the quilt. And that is exactly what I was doing.
What Your Sewing Machine Is Doing While You Sew
The second thing I had to understand was how my sewing machine was feeding the fabric. When you sew, you are most likely using a presser foot. The presser foot presses down on the fabric while the feed dogs move the fabric forward.
Feed dogs are those little zig-zaggy metal teeth under the presser foot that go up and down as you sew. Their job is to help advance the fabric evenly through the machine.
This system works great in lots of sewing situations. In garment sewing, for example, you may intentionally want to ease one piece of fabric into another. Think about easing a sleeve cap into an armhole. The feed dogs can help work in a small amount of fullness. That is wonderful when you are sewing a sleeve. It is not so wonderful when you are trying to make a quilt lay flat.
When you are attaching binding, you have multiple layers involved. You have the quilt sandwich on the bottom, the binding on top, and the sewing machine trying to move everything forward. If one layer feeds just slightly differently than the other, you can end up adding extra binding fabric to the edge without realizing it. That extra fabric has to go somewhere.
Usually, it turns into waves.
What I Was Doing Wrong
When I first started quilting, this was my binding method:
Cut the binding.
Sew the strips together.
Fold and press.
Throw it over my shoulder.
Start sewing.
No measuring. No anchoring. No controlling the amount of binding going onto each side. I just started at one point and kept going around the quilt. At the time, I thought I was being efficient. In reality, I was letting the quilt, the binding, the feed dogs, and gravity have a group meeting without me.
Between the slight stretch of cross-grain binding and the way the machine was feeding the quilt sandwich, I was adding more binding to the edge than the quilt actually needed. In some cases, I was getting close to 10% more binding fabric on a side than should have been there.
That may not sound like a lot until you think about a quilt side that is 80 inches long. Ten percent more binding means you have eased in about 8 extra inches of fabric along that edge. Eight inches. “No wonder my quilts wouldn’t lay flat, or hang straight!”
Why Pins and Walking Feet Help, But Do Not Always Fix It
A walking foot can help because it feeds the top and bottom layers more evenly. Pins can also help because they give you more control and reduce shifting. But for me, they did not completely solve the problem. Why? Because I could still stretch the binding between the pins. I could still accidentally pull on the binding as I sewed. The quilt could still feed a little differently than the binding. So I could still ease in extra fabric without noticing.
This is where glue changed everything for me.
Glue It Before You Screw It
I went back to my construction roots and the concept of “Glue it before you screw it.”
In construction, you often glue pieces together before adding screws so everything stays where it belongs. I started thinking, why couldn’t I apply the same idea to binding?
That is when I started using Elmer’s School Glue. Yes, the regular washable school glue. The same kind kids use in classrooms. (and occasionally eat.) It’s harmless.
The reason glue works so well is that it makes the quilt edge and the binding behave like one unit. Instead of the binding stretching, shifting, or being eased in as you sew, it is held in place exactly where you want it. Once the glue is dry, you can sew without fighting the layers.
Why Elmer’s School Glue?
I use Elmer’s School Glue because it is washable, nontoxic, and mostly starch and water. It does not gum up my machine, it does not hurt my fabric, and it washes out.
The key is to use a very small amount. You are not frosting a cupcake. You just need a thin bead or tiny dots of glue to hold the binding in position.
Then you heat set it. That is the fancy way of saying, “Use an iron to dry the glue because you are impatient.”
Heat setting dries the glue quickly and keeps everything stable while you sew. Once the glue is dry, the binding and the quilt sandwich behave as a single unit and feed evenly while sewing.
I have had far more trouble with products like Steam-A-Seam and Wonder Under than I have ever had with Elmer’s School Glue. Those products have their place, but for binding, simple school glue has been my best friend.
The Basic Idea
Here is the general process: Cut and prepare your binding as usual. Run a thin bead of glue along one side. Position the binding over the glue bead along the quilt edge without stretching it. Press with an iron to dry the glue. Then sew the binding to the quilt.
The glue is not replacing the stitching. It is just acting like a temporary helper so everything stays where it belongs while you stitch.
Think of it as basting, but without the pins to remove.
Why This Works
The goal is not just to attach the binding. The goal is to attach the correct amount of binding to the correct amount of quilt. That is the difference.
If your quilt side measures 80 inches, you want 80 inches of binding on that side. Not 82. Not 86. Not “whatever happened while I was sewing and watching TV.”
When you glue the binding in place, you are controlling that relationship before the quilt ever goes under the needle. The machine is no longer in charge of how much binding ends up on the edge. You are.
That is what made the difference for me.
A Flat Quilt Starts at the Edge
A quilt that lays flat and hangs straight depends on many things. Piecing, borders, quilting density, blocking, and finishing all matter. But do not underestimate the binding. Binding can make a good quilt look better, but it can also make a good quilt look wavy, distorted, or poorly finished. If you have ever had a quilt that looked great until the binding went on, this might be your problem too.
For years, I thought my quilting was the issue. I kept trying to fix the middle of the quilt when the problem was happening on the edge. Once I changed how I attached binding, I finally started getting competition quilts back without that comment. And let me tell you, that felt pretty good.
Coming Up in Part 2
Check back in two weeks for Part 2, where I will talk about the difference between single-fold and double-fold binding, why facing your quilt can be a great option, and some fun alternative edge treatments that can give your quilts a beautiful finish.
Because sometimes the best way to make a quilt hang straight is to stop treating the edge like an afterthought.
Want more info on how to bind and finish your quilts? Check out my book Stress Free Quilting® Borders Bindings and More. Now available in both Print and E-book formats.
Flat straight and finished
Flat straight and finished
Flat straight and finished
Flat straight and finished
Flat straight and finished
Flat straight and finished
Flat straight and finished
Flat straight and finished
Flat straight and finished
Flat straight and finished
Flat straight and finished