What is a flange binding? It’s a great no-hand-sewing option for finishing quilts with a sturdy double fold binding while adding a fun design element to the outer edges of your quilt.
Church Window quilt by Beth Ann Williams (pattern by Lo & Behold Stitchery), finished with a flange binding.
With only a few exceptions, I’ve always bound my quilts by sewing the binding to the front of the quilt by machine, and then wrapping the binding around to the back of the quilt and sewing it down by hand. I expect that I will always finish my show and “heirloom” quilts this way, but I have been thinking for quite a while about how I can speed up the process for utility quilts. Especially now that I’ve become enthralled with sew-alongs, the number of quilts in the to-be-finished pile is growing, and I’m finding it challenging to keep up with myself!
I’d done some experimenting, but had not settled on a method I was entirely happy with, when a couple of the ladies at the Muskegon Lakeshore Sewing store told me about the flange binding method demonstrated by Jenny Doan of the Missouri Star Quilt Company.
I was so impressed! The finished binding looks like it has been accented with fine piping – adding a fun design element at the same time as offering a relatively quick machine-sewing finish.
Since then, I’ve done quite a bit of research and found a number of different ways to achieve this effect. I’m going to share what works for me – but please remember, this is only 1 of the many ways to do this. 🙂
There is quite a bit of preparation for this method, but I find that each step is an important factor in ensuring a hassle-free result at the end.
Ronan “assisting” me with binding prep – he was escorted upstairs shortly after this and remained banished for the rest of the process.
