Preparing your Quilt Label

Before Binding

Generally, hanging sleeves are sewn on to the back of the quilt before the quilt is bound. This produces a sleeve that is very secure and doesn’t pull on the quilt backing at all. One side is machine stitched down before the binding is sewn down, but the other edge and both short sides must be hand sewn. This is a permanent sleeve. I tend to sew hanging sleeves to all of my quilts and have not found them to be problematic left on a bed quilt.

1. Cut a piece of fabric 8½″ wide by the width of the quilt. If the quilt is wide, cut two or more pieces to get the desired width. These can be sewn together for one long sleeve or sewn as multiple smaller sleeves with a 1″ gap      between them.
2. Turn the short ends in twice at ¼″ and press. Top stitch.
3. Fold the sleeve in half right sides out. Press. Line the raw edges centered along the top edge of the quilt back and stitch at a scant ¼″ to form a 4¼″ tube at      the top edge of the quilt. 
4. Pin out of the way while attaching the binding.
5. After the binding is complete, hand stitch the sleeve down along both short ends and along the entire fold.

Before Binding – no hand sewing method 

Some of us can’t do a lot of hand sewing due to physical limitations. This method attaches a sleeve with no (or very little) hand sewing. It is very secure and doesn’t pull on the quilt backing at all. The catch is that the quilt top must have a border, and it is best if that border is about 3″- 4″ wide. NOTE: Another horizontal seam that runs the entire width of the quilt can be used if there is no border. This is a permanent sleeve.

1. Measure the width of the border on the top edge of the quilt. Double that measurement and add ⅜″. Example: 4″ border would require 8⅜″. Cut a strip that is this measurement by the width of the quilt.
2. Turn the short ends in twice at ¼″ and press. Top stitch.
3. Center and pin the sleeve in place,  wrong side up, along the top edge of the quilt back. Pin both the top and bottom edge to the quilt.
4. Turn the quilt front side up. With invisible thread or a thread that matches the border well, use your walking foot to stitch in the ditch along the edge of the border.
5. Remove the pins. From the back of the quilt, fold the sleeve in half, lining the raw edges up with the top of the quilt. Press well and pin along the top edge. The fold will not be exactly along the stitching line from the last step. There will be a small amount of extra fullness to help compensate for the hanging rod.
6. Stitch the top edge at a scant ¼″.
7. Attach binding as usual. You may want to consider hand stitching or fusing the ends of the sleeve so that the rod won’t accidentally be inserted between the sleeve and the quilt back.

After Binding

This method is used when you need to attach a sleeve to an already-bound quilt. It is sewn down entirely by hand. It puts more stress on the quilt back than the methods that incorporate the sleeve before binding. It is easily removed if desired.

1. Cut a piece of fabric 8½″ wide by the width of the quilt. If the quilt is wide, cut two or more pieces to get the desired width. These can be sewn together for one long sleeve or sewn as multiple smaller sleeves with a 1″ gap      between them.
2. Turn the short ends in twice at ¼″ and press. Top stitch.
3. Fold the sleeve in half right sides out. Press to crease. 
4. Fold both sides in to line up at the center crease and press.
5. Unfold and line up the raw edges, wrong sides together. Stitch at ¼″
6. Refold the sleeve on the pressed creases. 
7. With the seam facing the quilt back, center the sleeve on the back of the quilt, ½″ from the finished binding. Pin in place along that top edge.
8. Hand-stitch the top edge of the sleeve. 
9. Pin the other fold to the back of the quilt. There will be quite a bit of extra fullness to compensate for the hanging rod.
10. Hand stitch the bottom edge and both ends of the sleeve.

Thanks to guild member Eileen Uchima for these instructions.