Striped Quilt Part 3 - Binding

Now that you have everything completely sewn together (top quilt, batting, and backing), it's time to finish up the last part!

Trim up all of the sides so that all of the sides are equal. I used my cutting mat to help me keep things straight.

The binding can be as thick as you would like. I ended up going with strips that had a width of 2.5" since I already had enough fabric for that and wouldn't need to buy more.

Calculate how many strips of fabric you need for the binding:
You can use this calculator for some easy math:

I love this tutorial on how to do the binding:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2egganTi2us

I chose to hand sew my binding instead of finishing it with the sewing machine. Before, I did the final stitching I embroidered "Made with Love by Mom 2015." I used a pencil to write it out and then embroidered. I loosely put in a couple of pins to help keep the binding down, so I would know how much space I had to work with.

You now have a beautiful and completely quilt! It felt like quite an accomplishment to finally finish this!

Part 1
Part 2

Striped Quilt Part 2 - Backing and assembling the quilt

Take your top layer and even it up a little bit, you don't have to completely cut it even right now but if you have sides that ended up much longer than others you can fix that now.

How much backing fabric you use, varies from person to person. I played it on the safer side, but some give themselves even extra fabric. I chose to have an extra 4"  of backing and batting on each side of my quilt.

My quilt top ended up being 42" by 58". So I wanted my batting and backing to be 50" by 66". Since I used a twin size batting, it was easy to cut into the size I wanted. The backing was a little trickier, since the width my bolt of fabric was only 43", I had to piece together my backing. I ended up getting 2 3/4 yards of my backing fabric to make sure I had plenty. (This might be where you need to bring out your math skills, don't forget to account seam allowance in).

I chose a polka dot fabric, and wanted to line up the polka dots so it would be harder to see where I pieced the fabric together. (I ended up ordering a little extra fabric for this reason)

Cut your fabric, and line up how you would like it.

Then pin the fabric, since you want this to stay lined up its important you pin it! Then sew, I just used a 1/4" allowance for this.

Press the seam open.

 And there you go, a backing that almost looks like it's one piece of fabric!

Find a large area to spread out your quilt. Lay your backing fabric print size down on the floor, and then place the batting on top.

Then place your top quilt piece on top- in the center. Remember I allowed for about 4" on each side of the quilt to have extra batting and backing.

Make sure everything is smooth out how you would like it including the back. I found that the back easy moved around so I was having to constantly check it.

Pin several areas of the quilt so that the quilt will stay in tact while sewing. (You may need to adjust pins later but this helps keep things mostly in place). Put extra pins on the first row you are going to sew. I chose to start in the middle and then alternate sides of the quilt as well as the direction I sewed in. This helped pull the quilt and prevent the quilt from bunching up. This part can be tedious, but go slow and careful.

I made a quick example to try to show you what I meant. I started with my center, grey stripe, I sewed from left to right. Then I sewed right below that stripe from right to left. Then I moved up and sewed again right to left, but it was in the opposite direction I sewed the row below it. I used pins on the side to help me know which side to sew. Keep checking the back as you sew the row to make sure the backing is not bunching.

 
I rolled up the quilt to make it easier to sew and fit easier with my sewing machine.





I tried to sew on the white part with white thread so it would blend in better.

Keep sewing until all of the rows have been sewed.

Part 1
Part 3

Striped Quilt Part 1 - Top piece (sewing the stripes)

I have been seeing this ruffled quilt floating around etsy and pinterest for a while and decided it as time I make it. Plus I wanted a quilt for E when she transition into a toddler bed. I made mine a little larger so it can be used as a lap quilt once she outgrows the toddler bed.

My quilt is 42” by 58” so my measurements are based on that size.

My quilt has 2 pink stripes, 3 grey stripes and 6 white stripes.

(Picture does not show backing as I bought that once my quilt top was completed).

Materials needed, in additional to the typical sewing supplies:

• 1 3/4" of pink*  (I used the pink for ruffled strips and binding which is why more fabric is needed)
• 1 1/4" of grey*
• 1 1/4" of white*
• Batting 50" by 66" I just bought a twin size since the crib size wasn’t large enough. **
• 2 3/4" of backing fabric
• Matching thread (I just used pink (since it was the binding color) and white for everything else)

*Make sure to check the width of your fabric, each strip will need to be cut to 43” so you don’t want to start with a smaller width. All of my fabric was at least 44” in width.

** Please make sure the batting allows it to be quilted up to 6” apart (some batting requires the quilting to be closer together.

I used a ½” allowance for all of the sewing.

After washing your fabric, cut your strips to be 43” by 6 ¼”.  Cut 3 grey, 6 white, and 6 pink.

Iron your pieces of fabric.

For the ruffled stripe:

Sew two pieces of the pink strips together, on the width part (the sides that are only 6 ¼”) so that you now have a long stripe 6 ¼” by 85” (losing an inch due to the seam allowance).

Once you have done this for both of your pink strips. Sew with an ½” allowance with a very loose and long stitch. (I had my tension at the loosest I could get it which was a 9 for my Brother sewing machine.). I recommend practicing this ruffle on a scrap piece of fabric. As you sew, the fabric will start to bunch up on its own – which creates the ruffle.

Pin this ruffle piece to one of your pink strips (42” by 6 1/4”). As you pin, you can help create some of the ruffles so you can get it to look the way you want.

Sew the strips with a 1/2" allowance on either side.

Do this again for the other ruffle. You should now have two ruffle pieces.

Now sew the strips together, two at a time. Be sure to pin, this helps so much in keeping the strips from shifting and being equal on all sides.

 I started by sewing a white strip to every grey strip.

Iron the seams open.

Continue sewing the strips together until the top of your quilt is finished! (sorry I forgot to take a picture with just the top - I put the pink around to make sure that's what I wanted for the binding)

I will finish this quilting process in other posts.

Part 2
Part 3