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Sunday, June 2, 2013

How to calculate the number of strips to bind a quilt.


It is frustrating to sew your binding strips together only to find that you are short and need another strip.  Here is the formula that I use.  Measure the width and length of your quilt.  Since fabrics come in slightly different widths, measure the width of your fabric with the selvage removed i.e. 40".  I subtract 2" from the fabric width to account for the mitered corners.
Use the following formula.

((quilt width + quilt length) * 2 )/ (fabric width - 2) round to the nearest highest number.

Example
(50 + 60)  = 110 * 2 = 220 / (40 - 2)  = 5.79 round to 6
You will need 6 strips to bind this quilt.