How to bind a quilt by machine that looks near to invisible

The fabric’s been chosen, the quilt top’s sewn and the quilting is done. Now it’s time to add a binding to finish the Spring Blossoms for Mom lap quilt. I really don’t want to mess it up now and it’s all about the finishing touches that sometimes make or break a project. No FOB (fear of binding) allowed.

There’s a way, yes there is… to add a binding to a quilt by machine that does not look wonky, messy or unprofessional. Today, I’ll explain this process to you. You’ll need Gütermann invisible nylon thread to achieve this look.

• Fill a bobbin with thread that matches and/or blends the best with your backing fabric.
• Fill the top thread pin with Gütermann invisible nylon thread.
• Find the hem stitch on your machine and mirror image it if you can so the picks of the hem stitch point towards the right.
• If you can’t mirror image the hem stitch, you can use a zigzag stitch for this as a great alternative.
• Also make the hem stitch or zigzag stitch smaller and closer together- see below.
• Use an open toe foot.
• Make your double fold binding as you would normally, there’s a great binding tutorial here.
• Engage needle down position if you can.

• Sew your binding to the back of the quilt. Wrap it towards the front, opposite from a normal hand slipped stitch binding.
• Once the binding is sewn to the back of the quilt, roll it towards the front and press it and pin it in place to hold. If you’re not a pinner, you can also hold it carefully with your hands and sew on the edge as shown below.

TIP Make sure the roll to the front is even all the way around (this is the key to a good looking binding).

• Sew carefully along the edge making sure the picks of the hem stitch and/or zigzag catch the binding.
• See the front and back of the quilt binding below.

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s tutorials explaining the process of making this quilt in time for Mother’s Day.

The quilt is now complete and a Mom is certainly worthy of all the hard work.

After all, moms are like stitches, they hold everything together.

Happy Friday and Happy Spring!