Quilt Borders & Finished Size
Finished quilt size from the centre and up to four borders, the strip lengths and cut widths for each, strips per border from your fabric width, and yardage.
The size after each border and the final size, side and top strip lengths for butted or mitred corners, strips cut across or along the grain, fabric per border and in all, and the gap to a target size you enter.
Example: A 48 × 60 in centre with 2 in and 5 in borders at ¼ in seams finishes 62 × 74 in; cut across 42 in fabric they take 6 and 7 strips, 53.5 in = 1.49 yd — 2 in over and 6 in short of 60 × 80.
One border
at a time.
How each border grows the quilt, what butted and mitred corners do to strip length, how strips are cut across or along the grain, and what the target size compares.
Growing the quilt
Borders are added in turn, innermost first. A border of finished width w adds 2w to both dimensions. With butted corners the side strips are as long as the quilt is before that border and the top and bottom strips span the new width; with mitred corners all four strips are their side plus 2w, so the mitre can be cut. Every strip is cut at the finished width plus two seam allowances, and its length plus two.
Cutting across or along
Cut across the fabric width, strips are pieced end to end: the total strip length ÷ the usable width, rounded up, is the number of width-of-fabric strips, and the fabric is that many times the cut width. Cut along the grain, the strips lie side by side, unpieced: the fabric is as long as the longest strip, and one length holds as many strips as fit across. Along-the-grain borders lie flatter and are the usual choice for a long quilt; the page gives both.
Target size
Enter the mattress or wall you are making for and the page shows how far the finished quilt falls short or over in each direction, so a border width can be adjusted before it is cut. Standard bed sizes vary by maker and country and are not embedded.
What the number does not settle
Pieced borders, cornerstones, and the extra that a heavily quilted top loses to shrinkage are not modelled. Measure the quilt through the centre, not at the edges, before cutting borders to length. Inputs stay in your browser; the same anonymous usage counts as the rest of the site apply.