– How to make a hanging sleeve

To hang wall quilts, and to enter a quilt in a show, you’ll need to sew a sleeve onto the back.

It’s best to do this before attaching the binding so that you can sew the sleeve into the top of the quilt by machine. This will be more secure and will save time since you’ll only have to hand-stitch one edge of the sleeve.

1. Cut a piece of fabric 9″ wide by the width of your quilt.
2. Press a ¼” fold along each 9″-wide edge, then fold it over another ¼” and press again. Top stitch close to the edge to create a narrow seam.
3. Fold the sleeve, wrong sides together and line up the raw edges with the raw edge of the top of your quilt. Pin the sleeve in place.
4. Baste the sleeve to the quilt by machine, with a scant ¼” seam allowance.
5. Attach the binding. Go slowly and use a longer stitch length across the top, because you will be sewing through the binding, the three quilt layers, and the two layers of the sleeve.
6. After the binding is attached, slipstitch the bottom of the sleeve to the back of the quilt by hand, being careful not to let your stitches go through to the front of the quilt.