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Bryan House Quilts

Tutorial: Making binding from selvedge

Tutorial

Updates to this Tutorial

Hey there! I’ve updated this with new content and new videos. The original tutorial below.

How to Cut Selvages, Rebecca Bryan         How To Make Selvage Binding

Explore my entire series of selvage quilt tutorials:

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I have a finish and a tutorial to share with you today!

In March, the Houston Modern Quilt Guild arranged a scrap swap. I was lucky enough to draw Tammy, who had a lovely bundle of Anna Maria Horner strips.

Here’s what I made for her:

The strips Tammy gave to me all had the selvedges, so I was left to wonder: “Does she want me to use the selvedges?”
I hope she did because I did! 🙂
The binding on her quilt is made from all the selvedges, which I had cut off and saved.
Today, I’m sharing how I made the binding using the selvedges.
Note: this tutorial assumes a knowledge of the steps involved in binding a quilt. (Here’s an in-depth tutorial.)  If you are familiar with binding a quilt then using the selvedges to make the binding strip  should be pretty straight forward. So, I will only point out what is different than your basic binding.
First, sew the selvedges into one piece of fabric.
This creates your binding yardage.  As opposed to sewing the selvedge pieces right sides together, I tucked each selvedge 1/4″ under the previous selvedge, see Jacquie’s Spider Web Block Tutorial for a more thorough explanation.
Next, cut your strips from your yardage.
Then sew your strips together using the same tuck under technique from above.
Now, iron your binding in half and admire your work.
It’s like a fabric lolly pop, ya’ll!
mmmmmm!
Now, sew the binding on as you normally would.
But when you get to the part where you sew your binding strip ends together, instead of sewing right sides together, use the tuck under technique again.
See? Tucked under.
Hand or machine stitch your binding to finish as you normally would.
Then you are done!
Binding made from selvedges

I think it creates a beautiful effect and it is pretty easy too. I can’t wait to use this technique again.

What do you think? Questions will be answered in the comments.

Related Tutorials

How to Cut Selvages, Rebecca Bryan         How To Make Selvage Binding

Explore my entire series of selvage quilt tutorials:

Reader Interactions

Comments

  9. JustPam says

    What a wonderful idea. I am going to have to start saving those selvage edges. How much do you keep of the selvage? It looks like about one and half inches.

    • rebeccabryan says

      You know I have heard selvages perform differently in the wash than the rest of the yardage.

      This yardage was not prewashed, but I did wash the quilt after finishing it and it and the selvage binding came out beautifully and cuddly.

      The bottom picture shows the quilt after washing.

  17. Karen Ingle says

    Fantastic idea. I have a lot of selvedges cut one inch. I think that would make a great binding for my next scrappy quilt.

    • rebeccabryan says

      Hi Susan, thanks for commenting. I didn't find it to be overly bulky. It can be a bit bulky, but it's not unmanageable. And maybe that was due to how wide one cuts the selvedges. As you can see I prefer to cut my selvages fairly wide.

      The only tricky part is the mitered corners; but it's only tricky if the seam hits just right.

  22. Joyce says

    This is amazing!!! Thank you so much for this wonderful idea I love it!!! Going to make some selvage binding this week!

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