Quilting & crafts

Straight-strip quilt binding

Estimate binding strips and fabric length for a rectangular quilt, including a stated loss at each strip join.

Your results

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Assumptions & limits

Strips run across the usable fabric width. Extra length covers your chosen corners and closing overlap. Join loss is subtracted between adjacent strips; set it for your actual method. This is not bias binding or an automatic purchase-rounding rule.

Formula

P = 2(w + l); T = P + E; n = max(1, ceil((T − J)/(F − J))); joined = nF − (n − 1)J; fabric = n × S

w: Quilt width
l: Quilt length
E: Extra binding length
J: Length lost per strip join
F: Usable fabric width
S: Cut strip width

Worked example

w = 60 in; l = 80 in; E = 10 in; J = S = 2.5 in; F = 42 in → P = 280 in; T = 290 in; n = 8; 20 in = 0.55555556 yd.

Results show up to 8 decimal places. Small values use scientific notation; calculations use unrounded factors.

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