Thursday, June 13, 2013

A little success, and a little frustration

Let's start with the good news, shall we?  Yesterday I made a Noodlehead Open Wide Zip Pouch, and I love it!


Instead of interfacing I used fusible fleece which I had leftover from my triple zip pouch, and it worked amazing.  The pouch has really great structure and because of the fleece, is nicely padded for whatever I end up putting inside.  

And now, the bad news......


What do these 3 quilts have in common??  The binding is coming undone!  Eeek.  These are the 3 that I noticed but I have a hunch that if I looked carefully at all of the quilts I have made, I might find the same thing.  Does this happen to anyone else or is it just me?  Do I need to give up hand-stitching binding and take up machine binding?  It doesn't make me happy because I loooove to sit and bind a quilt.  Obviously I'll fix these, probably re-doing the hand stitched seams that have come undone and go around by machine as well.  Any suggestions????

Live A Colorful Life

24 comments:

Katie B said...

Do you wash your quilts a lot? I've only noticed that on one of mine, and it gets a lot of use/washing.

Live a Colorful Life said...

I would just repair them. They look well loved and that's what it is all about, right?

Kate said...

Ouch! How often do you wash them? I admit, I started machine binding almost everything. I like the look of a hand bound quilt better, but since mine are mostly lap size, then get used and washed often. Love the colors on the bag!

mle said...

Oh dear! Seeing that makes me want to go check all of my quilts too. I do wash mine pretty frequently because my cats constantly lay on them and they get covered in hair after a week or two. I wouldn't be ready to give up on hand stitched binding yet though! Maybe try a slightly heavier weight thread and also putting your stitches closer together? Although looking at your pictures your stitches look nicely spaced so maybe a stronger thread is the answer. Good luck!

Debbie said...

Love the open-wide pouch - one of my favs! Tooo bad on the binding. I haven't had that happen, but I confess I don't wash our quilts all that often. I'll be reading the comments on your post though to see what others have to say...

heartsease54 said...

What kind of thread are you using? You could try doing them with some hand quilting thread, it is a little heavier, but would hold up better I think. Also you could go with 2 strands in your needle rather than one to make it stronger. I tend to think that this is due to the quality of the thread you are using though.

Taryn V. said...

Cute pouch! I love how roomy the open wide zip pouch is, very useful!

I actually noticed a spot where the binding came done on two quilts I made last year. My starburst quilt gets washed more than either of those, and it is still completely intact. The only difference is I started double stranding my thread. After reading the comments on this post, I think I am going to try using a different/stronger thread (currently just using All Purpose C&C).

Unknown said...

oh no! I've never had my hand binding come out! Is it where you're starting/stopping your thread? Maybe you need to use a bigger knot?
Or maybe the thread isn't strong enough? I like to hand bind with coats and clark hand quilting thread. I've used it ever since I started quilting 11 years ago, and never had this happen.
I hope you figure it out!

Patti said...

Oh, no, Heather! That really sucks! It hasn't happened to me yet, but I would just resew it. I do love your open wide pouch. I have made a bunch of them and I also use fleece instead of interfacing.

Janine @ Rainbow Hare said...

I love your pouch! It's annoying about the binding though. I don't know why that is happening.

Susan said...

Your pouch is great! Re-do the binding with quilting cotton or double thread, as suggested. I'm sure they'll be fine!

Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation said...

love the pouch and totally sympathize with you on the binding. Most of my quilts are kid/baby quilts and are well loved (read slightly abused), and I noticed that my binding was coming loose on several of them. I only do machine binding now. But I must say it doesn't hurt my feelings since I don't really like hand sewing. If you love binding by hand, I really hope you find a solution!!

by the way, I just started a new link party today for quilters- Needle and Thread Thursday. You should hop over and link up your project!

-Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation :)

Erica said...

This is something that I have given some thought, especially because this happened to my daughter's quilt last year. I am pretty sure that the culprit in that case was that the thread I used to hand sew the binding was pulled really taught and when I gave the quilt a pull one time while my daughter was sitting on the quilt, it actually broke the thread. Since that happened I have tried to not pull the thread quite so tight. It is still secure, it just has a little more give to it. There is no way I am going to give up hand quilting the binding. I figure that people have been hand sewing binding for a long time and many of those quilts are still around. If I make a quilt for someone and this happens I am more than happy to fix it for them. What stitch are you using for the binding? I go back and forth between a ladder stitch and a whipstitch and I wonder if one is stronger.

Kelsey said...

Oh that's heart breaking! n th plu side though that pouch is adorable. I hope you find a good solution for future projects. Be sure to keep us all informed :)

Kirsten said...

Love your pouch - still need to try to make one of those! Shame about the bindings though.

Deb@asimplelifequilts said...

Adorable pouch! I have started using a single strand of hand quilting thread (Treasure by Superior Threads)for my bindings - it's super strong and it is also coated so less knots than the doubled regular thread I used before.

Vicki said...

Love the pouch! When hand binding every quilt I hem, I always use bee's wax on my thread. It gives it a little more body, and it doesn't knot as much!

Jess @ Elven Garden Quilts said...

Gorgeous pouch! Bugger about the bind ing - I would just repair the bits that have come undone. I guess my question would be do you wash on a gentle cycle? And I'd imagine if you tumble dry that could cause extra stress on the binding?

Jessica Kelly said...

Love the pouch! I'm a huge fan of using fusible fleece instead of interfacing, like you said gives it a great weight and is slightly padded too! So sorry about the bindings coming undone :-( Unfortunately I'm not much help, I've always been worried about this happening, especially on quilts that get washed lots, so I've been turned over to a machine binder and use Rita from Red Pepper Quilts tutorial, hers is great, as you can't tell from the front its machine bound. Good luck!

Nat at Made in Home said...

Love the pouch! I would repair them. Not sure about top stitching - it would quite thick and may not look as nice...

Happy Turtle said...

Love the pouch. I made a couple from the tutorial recently and they are great!
I still like the look of hand binding over machine... so i guess repairing is the way to go?
carol

Lucy | Charm About You said...

I love the pouch!! Agree with the repairing advice too :)

CitricSugar said...

I much prefer to handbind but I don't think I've put quilts through enough tough use yet to see them start to come apart. It probably falls under "quilt maintenance" and eventually happens to all of them.

I've been lucky so far but I always use a doubled thread and knot it really well at both ends. It's worked but now I've probably jinxed myself, right?

Kelli said...

I like to hand sew my bindings too and this has happened on a few of mine. I saw your next post about hand quilting thread and I'll have to try that. I always use double thread but apparently I'm still doing something wrong...