I un-sewed the old binding, removing the machine top-stitching and the hand sewing. It was pretty much of a mess, worn to shreds, but still close to it's original Kelly green. That binding, I always wonder why it was chosen. Of course when it was new, the colors of the quilt were much brighter and included most colors there are. So, maybe it looked good then. In the quilt's present state of faded muted colors, it shouted a bit. However, when I got it all off, so it was no longer bound by such a dark contrast, I felt I had done the quilt a favor. It now looked calm, not a confined by it's dark fence.
Modern quilts are often bound with straight grain binding. It takes less fabric and doesn't stretch if handled properly.
Traditionally quilts are bound with a strip of bias fabric. It is said to wear better. This quilt requires it with it's scalloped edges. One of the properties of bias is it's stretchabilty. For the binding to lie flat when finished I would have to encourage it's stretchable tendencies.
Around the convexities of the scallops I needed to stretch sideways on the binding while guiding the quilt and the binding under the foot of the sewing machine so as to give the fabric enough width to cup over the curve when turned to the back. You can see in the photo above, I used a stiletto to help encourage the fullness into the fabric.
In the short concave curved space between the scallops I needed to pull on the binding gently while sewing it on.
It took a long time. It was rather tedious to tell the truth. It reminded me of setting sleeve caps, except that there were twenty of them.
I will turn the binding and sew it on by hand. that part is relaxing at least, even if it will take a while to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment