Borders tutorial

Wavy Borders-what to do with them? If I quilt it, there will puckers. So here are a few pointers.

First of all accuracy in every step is very important.
And when you are working on the bias, it is really important to not to stretch the edges.
Spraying the fabric with spray starch and ironing it before you sew helps the fabric not to stretch.


Unpick the borders! Spray them with spray starch and iron them so that they won't stretch as much.

Then you want to square up the quilt the best that you can. Make sure that your corners are square and that the quilt lies flat.
Measure through the middle of the quilt. Sometimes the edges can get stretched and by measuring through the middle, it helps to bring the quilt back into square.

Cut your first border the exact size of this measurement.
Then fold the border in half and then in fourths and mark with pins. Do the same for the quilt.
Match up the pins on the border and quilt and work in any fullness carefully. If you have one side that is fuller that the other, put that side on the bottom when you sew it. The feed dogs on the sewing machine will help ease the fullness in.

Now measure the quilt lengthwise including the two borders that you have just sewn on. Use that measurement (lengthwise of quilt and plus the 2 borders) Use that measurement to cut the next 2 borders. Divide the quilt in fourths and the border in fourths. Match the pins again. And sew the borders on.
I measured and matched the pins 12 times on this quilt.
It takes a little bit more time, but the quilt lies a lot flatter


I hope that this helps in future projects. Any questions on anything that I haven't made very clear, let me know.