Quilt Binding: Making The Binding - Village Bound Quilts

Straight grain, or straight-of-grain is a term used for either the lengthwise grain or the crosswise grain, as it refers to the direction of the threads in the fabric (straight). Usually with binding fabric, straight grain is referring to the crosswise grain.

Bias cut is cut on the bias of the fabric (45-degree angle). Because it's not cut along the grain it has a lot more stretch, making it ideal for binding projects that have curved edges (like rounded quilt corners). It can be slightly more difficult to cut and can produce more fabric waste when cutting is poorly planned, but that shouldn't deter you from using this method. Cutting this way can also produce some great results when using striped fabric as binding!

Selvage, or selvedge, is the edge of the fabric that is tightly wound to prevent the fabric weave from unraveling. In solid fabrics, this edge is often fringe-like. Most high-quality cotton prints have the manufacturer, designer & fabric line information printed in the selvage. The selvage of any fabric is usually removed from the fabric when cutting, before sewing and piecing.

Double-fold, also sometimes called French fold, is the sturdiest way to fold your binding for quilts, especially when they are anticipated to get a lot of use (aka - frequent washing). the binding strip fabric is folded in half, bringing the edges together on one side, resulting in 2 layers of fabric hugging the raw edge of your quilt sandwich.

Single-fold uses a bias tape maker to fold the edges of binding strip fabric inwards, leaving only 1 layer of fabric along the outermost fold. While the amount of fabric is the same and can be used on either straight cut or bias cut strips, it's single fold makes it more prone to wear as compared to double-fold.

Tape is just the term used for the continuous length of strips that you sew together to make binding with - basically just a really long piece of fabric.

So you can have cross-grain single-fold binding, or double-fold bias binding, or really any combination of the fabric cut and the fabric fold. Technically we are making double-fold straight-of-grain binding tape when we most commonly make binding . But that's a mouthful - so we'll just call it binding. Good? Good! Moving on!

How much binding do I need?

We can figure this out with some simple math - all you need to know is the size of your quilt and the size of binding you'd like to make. You can make quilt binding in any size you'd like, but 2 1/4 (2.25 inches) or 2 1/2" strips are most common - this will give you a binding width of about 1/4" on the front and back of your quilt. Using 2 1/2" strips might be recommended for early beginners, especially if you're going to be attaching your binding entirely by machine (so that attaching leaves room for 3/8" instead of strictly 1/4" seam allowance). But you can make binding in any width you'd like! Here's how to figure out how much fabric you'll need for the size binding you choose: