Binding. Always the forgotten (neglected?) step. 

You get so caught up with piecing the top, then getting it perfectly quilted, that by the time you get to the binding, you are giving it the side eye. 

The quilting turned out beautiful, it’s all squared up, you can SEE the finish line but the pattern just says “bind the quilt”, no strip counts, no yardage requirements.

This project was essentially done, and now instead of cuddling up with a cup of coffee, you are heading back to the cutting table. 

You know how wide to cut the strips, but how many strips do you cut and how much yardage do you need to get there?

And since stopping to do math NEVER feels like the easiest way, we end up trial and erroring by crawling around on the ground until we’ve cut enough strips to lay them on the ground all around the edges of the quilt. (hopefully that’s not just me…)

However doing the math first will help you cut strips faster and make sure you have the right amount of yardage to begin with, all without crawling on the ground.

Today I’m showing you how easy calculating quilt binding yardage is and introducing our new calculator to make it super simple for your next quilting project. 

Hey! Just a quick note, if you already know math is NOT your cup of tea and you are dreading doing it by hand, check out our new Backing, Batting, and Binding Calculator that does all of this for you in just a single click. 

You can head to the Backing Batting and Binding Calculator here!

How to measure for quilt binding

Step 1 is to find the dimensions of your squared up quilt.

Once you have your quilt’s dimensions measured, plugging them into the formula and calculating quilt binding becomes super simple.

So using a ruler, fabric measuring tape, or regular measuring tape, find the measurements of your quilt sides.

Measure the length of the short side of the quilt, as well as the long side of the quilt. 

For this formula we’ll want the two dimensions in inches. 

How to calculate binding length

To calculate how many strips we need to cut, we need to know how many linear inches of binding we’ll need.

Note: Linear inches just refers to the length you’d get if you straightened out all of your quilt edges into a single straight line. This is the length of continuous binding you’ll need to get all the way around the quilt.

Once you have the measurements of your two sides, the formula to figure out how many inches you’ll need is pretty simple. 

(2 x shortest side) + (2 x longest side) = Total amount of inches needed for binding

To figure out how many strips we’ll need to get that length (without crawling on the floor) all we’ll need to do is divide it by the width of the fabric you’ll be using for the binding. 

Standard WOF is typically 42” so to find out how many strips you’ll need to cut, all you have to do it take your total from above, and divide it by 42. 

Total amount of inches / 42 = number of binding strips needed

A quick tip, whatever I end up with for my total, I like to either round up to the nearest strip, or add 1 more strip since you tend to lose some fabric when you sew the strips together. 

Lets do a quick example:

I have a quilt that measures 72” on the short side, and 80” on the long side. 

( 2 x 72 ) + ( 2 x 80 ) = 304 inches of total binding

304 / 42 = about 7.25 strips

Since 3/4 of a strip should be plenty to account for fabric loss, I’ll round up to 8 strips and start cutting!

How wide to cut fabric for binding

The standard width for binding strips is either 2.25 inches or 2.5 inches depending on your personal preference. 

While I wouldn’t recommend going much smaller than that width, you could certainly go wider and have a thicker binding when it is finished. 

The 2.25 – 2.5 inch strip width is based on using a typical double folded French binding method. 

If you aren’t sure what this means or how to use it, be sure to check out our other binding tutorials using this technique:

How to make quilt binding
How to bind your quilt by hand
How to machine bind a quilt

How much material do I need for binding

Once you know how many strips you’ll need to make your binding, as well as how wide you want those strips to be, calculating quilt binding yardage requirements is as simple as multiple the two numbers together.

( Width of raw binding strip x number of strips required ) = amount of yardage you’ll need to complete your binding. 

Multiplying your width and number of strips will give you how many inches of fabric you’ll need off the bolt. 

Since there are 36 inches in a yard, dividing that number by 36 will give you how many yards it converts to. 

For our example from earlier:

I needed 8 strips for my quilt, and I’ll cut them at a width of 2.5″, the total yardage I need for this quilt is:

( 8 * 2.5 ) = 20 inches off the bolt

20 / 36 = 0.56 yards of binding fabric

Now to give myself a little wiggle room, I’ll round up to 3/4 yards and place my order!

Quilt Binding Calculator – Save even more time

Math. It’s annoying. 

That’s why calculators exist to make our lives 10 times easier. 

If you hate calculating quilt binding, you probably have the same love/hate relationship with calculating how much yardage you need for your backing.

And let’s not even start on deciding on which size batting to use. 

We’ve created the perfect quilting calculator to calculate all of this for you so you can stop crunching numbers and get back to the sewing faster.

Enter your quilt dimensions, play around with slider options, define the direction the backing fabric runs, or even run the calculator for 108” backing. 

This calculator is so handy I keep it bookmarked on my browser to make sure I can always find it quickly when I need it. Either before I go shopping or when I’m actually in the fabric store. 

And by the way, it’s TOTALLY FREE. 

No email required, opt ins, or newsletter sign ups required. 

So if you absolutely hate the math, don’t have the time, or are in the store in a pinch, be sure to check it out and see how it can help with calculating quilt binding yardage right the first time every time. 

Click here to get head to the FREE Quilting Wemple Backing, Batting, and Binding Calculator.