How To Sew Border Strips Together
Quilts require lots of fabric to make. In the making of quilts, you will find that you may have lots of leftover fabrics. Many quilters, rather than store the leftover fabric, cut it up into strips that they use to make borders for their quilts.
How Do You Sew Border Strips Together?
Contents
There are different types of borders you can make. You can sew border strips together to make border strips that are long enough to form a quilt border.
Steps to Sew Border Strips Together
Method 1. Diagonal Seam
Diagonal seams for joining fabric strips together are highly popular. It is easy to do and leads to beautiful border strips.
Step 1. Cut out fabric strips that you want to use to make a border for your quilt.
Step 2. Measure the length of the quilt to find out how long your border strips should be.
Step 3. Layout your strips ready to turn them into quilt borders. Lay your fabric strips perpendicular to each other. This means that once you have put your first strip on your working surface, bring the second one onto the lower part of the first strip to form an L.
Step 4. At the point where the L is formed by the two fabric strips, draw a diagonal line on the top strip.
Step 5. Sew along this diagonal line to join the two fabric strips together.
Step 6. Press the seams open and straighten the strips to form a straight fabric strip. If it is not long enough for your quilt, add another fabric strip in the same way until you have your desired length.
Method 2. Strip Piecing
When you have strips of fabric that you want to join together to form a border on your quilt, you can use the strip piecing method. Here is how to go about it.
Step 1. Cut out your fabrics in your desired dimensions.
Step 2. Lay your fabrics on top of each other at the edges that you want to join them together
Step 3. Sew them on the sewing machine.
Step 4. Press open the seams to straighten the fabric strips.
Step 5. Put them back together one on top of the other.
Step 6. Add as many fabric strips to get to the required length of the border strip.
Steps To Sew Border Strips
Method 1. How to Sew Strips For Border With Butted Corners
This type of border is simple to complete and helps to make your quilt stand out.
Hers is how to sew border strips together for borders with corners.
Step 1. Measure the length and width of your quilt. For each side add two more inches to the length and cut out strips of this length.
Step 2. Pin your border strips along the length of the quilt. Pinning the strips at both ends and the center. You can have additional pins to make sure that the border strips are well attached to the quilt.
Step 3. Starting at the length of the quilt, do this on both lengths. Your border strips will hang on either end of the length of the quilt. It is now time to sew the border strips onto the quilt.
Step 4. On your sewing machine, start sewing your border strips from the edge of the quilt. Do not sew the overflow part of the border strip. Sewing along until the other end and stop sewing at the edge of your quilt. This will leave your border strips with flaps on either end.
Step 5. Cut off half of the overflow border strips. This creates an opening in the border. Insert your scissors and cut up to the length of the last stitch at the edge of the quilt. This reduces the bulk at the edges of your border strips.
Step 6. Now, starting with one border strip, fold it inwards onto the right side of the quilt and hand stitch to the end of the length of the quilt. Make sure that your stitch lies on the sewing machine stitch where the border strip is attached to the quilt.
Step 7. Repeat this process for the remaining three sides of the quilt to give your quilt butted corners.
Method 2. How To Sew Strips For Borders With Mitered Corners
Mitered borders is a technique used by few quilters. However, it is not as difficult as many think it is. Which puts them off from using it as many times as they can.
Here is how to sew border strips to make mitered corners.
Step 1. Measure the length of your quilt and add four more inches.
Step 2. Make border strips by joining long or short fabric strips together. Your border strips are the length of the quilt plus four inches.
Step 3. Mark the center of the border strips and also mark the center of the length of the quilt. Attach the center of the border strip to the center of the top of the quilt.
Step 4. Sew the border strips onto the length of the quilt. Sew from the edge of the quilt to leave the two inches of the border strips hanging on either end. Do this on all four sides of the quilt.
Step 5. Now, fold your quilt diagonally. Make sure to straighten out your borders properly on the side that’s facing you.
Step 6. With your ruler, draw an extension of the diagonal line across your border strips.
Step 7. Stitch along this marked diagonal line.
Step 8. Open up your quilt to check on the outcome. If it is good, press the seam open on the diagonal line to give a flat appearance at the edge of your quilt border.
Step 9. Repeat this process for the remaining three sides of your quilt and you will have a quilt with mitered corners.
How To Sew Borders On A Blanket With Satin Blanket Binding
You can buy a satin blanket binding to use as a border for your blankets. You can make your blankets for this exercise. For your self-made blankets, make sure that all your edges are as straight as possible.
The satin binding is designed with one side shorter than the other. The shorter side should be used as the front part of the blanket border.
Place the satin binding onto the middle of the blanket on one side and stick it onto the blanket with pins as you set it all around the blanket.
Bring your blanket to the sewing machine and sew your border onto the blanket. At every corner, sew your border into a mitered corner. Sew all your binding all around the blanket until you have created a border all around it.
How To Join Patterned Fabric
Sometimes, your fabric is not enough for the sewing project you are carrying on. You will find yourself wondering what to do to get the right amount of fabric with the right patterns.
Go back to the store and buy similar fabric. Check how the pattern of your fabrics is aligned. You may need to cut your fabrics to align the patterns.
Once you have your patterns aligned, join your fabrics as perfectly as possible with clips or pins. Now, bring your fabrics to the sewing machine and sew along the line you have joined the fabrics. Make sure to use a backstitch at the beginning and end of the fabrics for a tight stitch.
Remove the fabric gently from your sewing machine onto your working area. You have successfully joined your patterned fabric.
Conclusion
When it comes to sewing borders, there are many ways to do it. You can buy ready-made fabric borders from the store or join the different fabrics in your store to make border strips. There are many methods you can use to make your borders from pieces of fabric strips if that is what you have available. Diagonal fabric strips and chain piecing are some of the easiest methods for this.
There are many types of borders that you can make for your projects. The above instructions will help you to make the different borders you want.
Crafting has always been a deep-seated passion of mine, one that has flourished and evolved over the years.
I've dedicated considerable time to both studying and practicing in the realm of fashion and sewing, amassing a wealth of experience and skills.
It brings me great joy to share these insights and experiences with you all, hoping to inspire and foster a similar passion for the art of sewing.
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