I haven't tried it yet, but some people have used 1/4" double sided fusible to iron the binding it in place first, which is suppose to make it easier. If it was fused on straight, then a choice of an edge foot might help you out?

Hopefully those with much more experience than I will have some further ideas.

Connie

I find that I get a much neater look if I sew the binding to the back of the quilt and then wrap it around to the front and top stitch it in place really close to the edge. Also, try making your bindings a bit wider than you usually would. I cut 2.5" wide for a machine sewn binding.

Annie

Try using a glue stick to hold it down. It should hold well and the glue will wash out. I haven't tried it yet, but I have heard several people say it works well.

beverly

I also have Arthritis and carpel tunel very bad LOL...I always use to put my binding on by hand......What I do is make my binding a little larger and I use zig zag stitch for my binding I also try to use the same color thread....as the binding......I have even uses a decorative stitch.....I always pin my binding which I use as guide line when I stitch my binding....I also starch my binding to make it stiff LOL.....I find with the binding a little larger and starched stiff...I can catch both the front and back binding when I machine sew Hope this make sense how I explained it. Try a couple scrap practice pieces to see if it works for you!

Red

I would cut a binding 2 1/2", fold wrong sides together and machine stitch it to the back of the quilt. When you bring it around to the front side, pin in place with the pins pointing away from you. (Watch out because they still might stick you in the stomach! ouch!) But this way they are easier to put in and easier to pull out when stitching. Then I would choose one of your decorative stitches that is wider and work your way around. If you keep the edge of your binding in the middle of your foot, the wider decorative stitch will be well placed, catching the binding well.

I've done this on quite a few toddler quilts and it holds up really well.

I use pretty much the same method as Jennifer only with an edge stitch since I don't have a machine that does decorative stitches. I also starch it like crazy, just like Red. The starch really helps stabilize the whole thing.

Annie

I use the glue method that Beverly mentions and I really like it.
I use starch and sew the binding to the back and then put a small line of Elmer's washable glue on the quilt and iron the binding to the front of the quilt.
The glue irons dry and holds the binding in place and is not hard to sew through.
I watched Sharon Schamber's utube video with this method and she quilts for show. She advises only use Elmers.
The mitered corners look great and the glue washes out.
Rosa

Annie, why do you prefer back to front? Carole

I sew my bindings onto the front of the quilt with cotton thread in bobbin and on top. Then I use invisible thread in the bobbin and cotton on top, sew from the back to sew down the binding. That way, the top thread shows on the back, but on the front, it's the invisible thread and you can't see the stitches. I have used this method for many quilts and have had no problems.

Thankfully bindings come easy for me, I don't even pin the bindings. Using the walking foot to apply bindings makes all the difference in the world for me.

I'm doing a charity lap quilt and I'd like to do the binding the way Jennifer_in_VA describes, since I think it would hold up better to more frequent washing. I already have the binding ready to sew on. My question is, how should I trim the backing and batting to accommodate doing the binding this way. Should they be trimmed to the same size as the quilt? Or should the batting and/or backing stick out beyond the quilt top? If so, by how much? (I'm a newbie!)
Thanks!
Marcia

Carole: I never had any luck machine stitching bindings using the usual method of sewing the binding to the front, folding it to the back and then trying to catch the edge of the binding by stitching in the ditch from the front. I just ended up with a big mess. By reversing the process, and top-stitching along the edge on the front side, I just get a line of stitching paralllel to the edge of the binding on the back. If I use bobbin thread that matches the backing fabric, it hardly shows at all.

When hand-finishing a binding, I sew it to the front and fold it to the back as usual.

Annie