Quilted Mat Sew Along - Tutorial 3 - Binding

Welcome to the final part of the Sew Along! It's been wonderful seeing everyone's mats on flickr, instagram and facebook so far! If you need to go back to the other tutorials you can find all the links here.

Before I introduce how I bind my mat, I'd like to add a disclaimer. I am self taught - free internet tutorials and You Tube videos are how I learned a lot of my sewing skills. You might know another way to bind your mat or quilted project which may be preferable to you. That is fine! The wonderful thing about the creative arts - yes I believe sewing to be a creative art - is that there are NO RULES. Do it your way! My way is not gospel. It just works for me. Feel free to apply other skills or techniques to your project.

Also, I'd like to add that when I took many of these pictures, the afternoon light was fading and I struggled to take good pictures as binding is often a two handed job. Not so easy to hold a camera! So bear with me!

First thing to do is take your binding and press it in half. Adding this fold helps later on in the project.

Flip your mat over to the back. Open out your binding and pin to the mat so a raw edge of the binding is aligned with the raw edge in your mat. Start halfway along a side of the mat.

Once you get to the corner, flip your binding up like the picture below. The binding will form a 90 degree angle where it folds back on itself and a 45 degree angle toward the corner.

Fold the binding back down so the fold sits along the raw edge of the mat. The binding will now be in the correct position to be aligned with the next edge of the mat, and to form a mitred corner.

Continue for all the corners until you have pinned the binding around the entire mat. Pinch the binding together and mark with a fading fabric marker where they meet.

Remove the pins nearby and sew the binding together at the mark. Trim the seam and your binding will now be continuous around the mat.

Stitch in the ditch of the binding closest to the mat edge. When you arrive at the corners, sew right up to the fold, reverse back and forth or use a knot function (if your machine has one) to secure and finish. Flip the triangular fold to the other side, then start sewing again along the next edge.

Turn the mat over and flip your binding over to the front.

Pin in place so the edges are neat and manipulate the corners gently to form mitred corners.

Sew all the way around the front to secure your binding in place. Confession - this binding did not work as well as previous quilted mats. It seemed a bit stretched and puckered (you can see in the pic below). I think it was the pressure of taking pictures of it and using it for this tutorial! Stage fright. I bought a cheap binding and I think in future I will make my own from quilting cotton. You can see in pictures further down that it worked much better with them!

HURRAH! Your quilted mat is done! Congratulations and THANK YOU so much for sewing along with me.

 

Although this mat is small, it is still technically a quilt, so congratulations on making your first quilt!

Now use it however you like -as a place mat, sewing machine or overlocker mat, on your bedside table or to make your desk prettier at your work place! 

I can't wait to see your finished mats! I hope I've given you some confidence to tackle a larger quilting project if that's what you'd like to try. Share your finished mats on Instagram using the hashtag #matsewalong, post it on my facebook page or upload a pic in the Sew Delicious flickr group. 

If you've sewn along you can grab this button:

<center><a href=" http://www.sewdelicious.com.au/2013/04/quilted-mat-sew-along.html " target="_blank"><img alt="sewalong" src=" http://i1250.photobucket.com/albums/hh521/sewdelicious/quiltedmatsewalongsewdelicious.jpg " width="200" /></a></center>