Faux Piped Binding

This is a fun, fast way to finish your binding entirely by machine and add a little pizzaz to your finished quilt.  I may update this another day because when I made this one, I did not consult my notes.   What you need to remember is that the fabric for the piped edge should be the one that is cut larger.  Believe me, I won't forget this again!
 

Cut your strips @ 1 5/8" for the piping and 1 3/8" for the binding fabric (finishes @ 2 1/5" binding).  Prepare each of those fabrics in the same manner as your would for regular binding, joining to obtain the length needed for your project.   Press those seams open.  Once you have the length for each color needed you will join those strips together.   Sew right sides together using 1/4" seam.   I like to press the seam flat just like the seam was stitched.  This will distribute the thread nicely thoughout the strip.  If you want a piped look, press the seam allowance toward your piping fabric, if you want a flat, flange look to your piping, press the seam toward the binding fabric.

Carefully, fold and press the strip in half keeping your piped edge on top so that if you need to shift the fabric a thread to keep the piped edge fairly even in width. (I need a new ironing board cover!  I like a hot iron and starch for most applications)


Pin and stitch the binding  to the wrong side of your quilt with the piped edge facing the backing.
Wrap the binding toward the front and pin using lots of pins to line up the rolled edge falling just at the previous stitching line.   I pin out the entire top, mitering at the corners before stitching,  Match your top thread to your binding and your bottom thread to your backing and stitch close to the rolled eged.  (I wanted this to be a dark piping and binding that matched the border but I switched the cutting order plus I used every bit of the dark fabric and could not re-cut....!)

Stitch around the entire quilt and you are DONE!

Even though I made the binding backwards from how I wanted this little quilt to finish, I decided the piping would show and it sort of complimented the crosshatched border.  Here it is finished.
Backside

Edited to add a few of my older quilts with faux piped binding with high contrast.


Here's the 10 minute block quilt after washing.


Comments

Nancy said…
Interesting method... thanks for sharing this. Your results look very good.
Desert Threads said…
I like it and will have to do it on my next quilt but I think I would prefer to SEE the piped side. Why go to the extra effort if you can't see it?
Valerie said…
Oh but the extra seam is little extra effort compared to my usual method of hand sewing the back side. FAST! All done on the machine and with the piped edge, it is so easy to stitch right along the side. Besides, as I stated when I realized I cut the strips wrong... I did not have any more of the dark fabric used for the inner border and did not want to introduce a different dark for the piping.