Great Tips for Tidying up Leftover Binding Strips

If you are like me, you just can't make yourself throw away extra binding that you may have from a project. And, if you are like me, then you keep all of these binding ends in a safe place, ready to be used in a future project. And, if you are like me, you FORGET to use any of the bindings in this safe place and they become a huge untamed mess. Well, NOT ANYMORE!!! Today I'm taming the binding beast!!

In my sewing room I have six little plastic boxes. One for leftover strips of fabric, one for 2" squares of fabric, one for 3" squares of fabric, one for 4 1/2" squares of fabric, one for flannel squares and one for extra pieces of binding. Whenever I am cutting out a project and I have a little left over fabric, I cut it into squares and put them in the appropriate bin. I've used these squares to make tote bags or other small scrappy projects. Since I've started my 52 week UFO Challenge I've made A LOT of binding and had lots of ends left over, but my binding bin was so full that I couldn't put anything else in.

The first thing I did was to THROW OUT any pieces that I knew I would never use. When I first started quilting I cut all of my binding 2" wide, but now I always use 2 1/2" strips, so I tossed all of the 2" wide ones into my scrap bin (which is also starting to overflow!).

The next step was to sort. I decided to make one pile of red bindings...

One pile of batik bindings...

One pile of country coloured bindings...

And one pile of navy bindings, one of brights and one that was all black fabrics. I randomly sewed the bindings in each pile end to end with a mitred join, pressed them and then wound them onto some pieces of cardboard to keep them tidy. Here is my collection of brights all ready for a fun kids quilt!!

Bright bindings wound on cardboard.

 I LOVE the way the red ones look! I can't wait to use them in one of my projects!

I could fit about four different bindings on each piece of cardboard. A pin the end of each binding will keep them from unravelling.

Here is my bin, all nice and organized!! I had a few pieces that just didn't fit in with any of my groupings so I left them on their own. Now that I know what I have in the box I'll be more apt to use them. And, now that the bindings are all sorted nicely, I can add new pieces to whatever grouping I want as I add them to the box. I LOVE it!!!