Finish a T-Shirt Quilt with the Janome Quilt Binder Set

Last year I wrote a blog post about making a T-Shirt quilt with a Serger. It was a fun, easy project, especially when using a serger – OH! like the new Janome AT2000D Air Thread serger!

When the quilting process was complete and it was time for binding, my favourite Go-To method was, and is, to use the Janome Quilt Binder Set.

You’ll find many posts about the Quilt Binder using the “Search” box to the right of your screen.

What makes the Janome Quilt Binder Set such a time-saver is that it neatly folds the binding strip around the quilt while sewing it down in ONE step….. Yes! ONE STEP!

You’ll see in the above video that I’m also using the Janome Tape Stand. It makes binding SO much easier! Finally, I have a convenient place to keep my binding instead of just leaving it in my lap, or, having it trail all over the floor; running over it with the wheels of my sewing chair; having my cat play with it – I know many of you can relate. The tape binder solves the hassle!

There is a special presser foot which comes included in the Janome Quilt Binder Set blister pack, but my favourite foot to use for binding is the Twin/Dual AcuFeed Flex Foot Holder with the standard AD AcuFeed Flex Foot.

Since many Janome sewing machines allow you to adjust the needle position, I moved the needle to about an 1/8 inch away from the left edge of the binding. I chose to use a straight stitch to sew the binding down, but you can also use a variety of decorative stitches instead. Experiment to see what works best for you.

You may have noticed in the above photo that I have a row of straight stitching close to the raw edge of the T-Shirt quilt. (also see below)

It’s not necessary to do this row of basting next to the edge of your quilt when using the Janome Quilt Binder Set. but it does help hold everything in place. However, I did this mainly because I quilted this quilt on a longarm quilting machine, like The Janome Quiltmaker Pro 18, for example. Basting keeps the edges of the quilt from flipping back, or from being distorted, especially when using a computer robotics program to guide the actual quilting, like the Pro-Stitcher Premium computer to use with the Janome Quiltmaker Pro 18

Like everything else in life, practice, time and patience makes perfect, so you’ll likely want to make up some little quilt sandwiches to practice mitering the corners. Full instructions are included in the blister pack, as well, there are helpful videos to watch on Janome Canada’s You Tube channel.

You see in the above photo that the mitre wants to form quite naturally because of the way the Quilt Binder attachment folds the binding. It’s really a marvelous, ingenious piece of engineering, and, given the all metal construction, the Janome Quilt Binder Set is an investment you’ll have forever.

I like leaving the long thread tales as I mitre the corners because I use those threads to hand sew the mitres closed after I finish binding. That’s the only bit of hand sewing I did on this entire T-Shirt quilt, although to sew the mitres closed is entirely up to you. Some people choose to do it, some don’t. As I often say, it’s your quilt, you do what’s best for you.

The photo below shows my friend Keith (on the left) and his Dad (on the right) proudly displaying the T-Shirt quilt which I finally gifted to Keith and his wife Andrea (absent from the photo) for Christmas 2018. It’s a cute, fun trip down memory lane as they recall the stories behind each of these T-Shirts.