Quilting guide

How to bind a quilt: strips, joins and mitered corners

Updated October 5, 2026 by Khokhar Sab

Cut strips 2½ inches wide across the fabric. Join them with diagonal seams and press the long strip in half. Sew the raw edges to the front of the quilt with a ¼ inch seam, folding a miter at each corner. Then wrap the fold to the back and stitch it down. A 90 by 95 inch queen quilt needs 382 inches of binding, which is 10 strips.

What double-fold binding is

Binding is the narrow strip of fabric that covers the raw edges of a quilt after quilting. Double-fold binding is a strip pressed in half along its length, so two layers of fabric wrap the edge. The extra layer makes it hard-wearing, which matters on a quilt that gets used and washed.

The binding calculator assumes straight-grain strips, cut across the width of the fabric. Strips cut this way are quick to make and work on any quilt with straight sides. Curved or scalloped edges need bias binding, which stretches around the curves.

For the fabric, Create Whimsy suggests one already used in the quilt, or a contrasting one that frames it.

How long the binding needs to be

Add up all four sides of the quilt, then add some extra for joining the ends and turning the corners. The binding calculator adds 12 inches for this.

For a 90 by 95 inch queen quilt, the perimeter is 2 × (90 + 95) = 370 inches. Add 12 and you need 382 inches. Fabric that is 42 inches wide gives about 40 usable inches per strip once you trim off the selvages. Divide 382 by 40 and round up, and you get 10 strips. At 2½ inches each, that is 25 inches of fabric, so buy ¾ yard.

These figures use 2½ inch strips cut from 42 inch fabric. Your own quilt may be a few inches off these sizes after quilting, so measure it before you cut.

How much extra binding to add

Tutorials don't agree on the extra length. Christa Quilts adds 10 inches to the perimeter for the seam joins. Create Whimsy asks for at least 20 inches, for the mitered corners and the final join. The calculator sits in between at 12 inches. Here is what each choice does to the strip count:

Going from 10 to 20 inches adds one strip for the throw, twin and full sizes, and it changes the yardage only for the full. The rest of the time the last strip already has room to spare. So the bigger allowance costs very little, and Create Whimsy's point stands: running short at the final join is worse than a few inches of leftover binding.

Choosing a strip width

The calculator offers strip widths from 2 to 2¾ inches. Fold a strip in half and you get the doubled width that wraps the edge. Part of that width sits inside the seam you sew; the rest has to reach around the quilt to the back.

A thick batting needs more fabric to get around the edge, so it suits a wider strip. A thin, flat quilt can take a narrower one. National Quilters Circle gives 2½ inches as the usual width and 2¼ inches as a narrower choice. Joz Makes Quilts lists 2, 2¼ and 2½ inches and recommends 2¼, and Christa Quilts cuts 2 inch strips, or 2¼ to 2½ inches for a wider look.

Wider binding for a wider edge

For a binding that shows more than ¼ inch on the front, the strip and the seam both get wider. Create Whimsy works it out this way: the finished width covers the front, wraps the edge and covers the back, so multiply it by 3. Double that for the fold, then add ½ inch. You sew it on with a seam as wide as the finished binding.

The ¼ inch row gives the same 2" strip as the calculator's default. The calculator's other widths assume a ¼ inch seam. For a wide binding, use this formula to pick the strip width. Then enter it in the calculator to get the strip count.

Single fold or double fold

Single-fold binding is one layer of fabric. You sew it to the front, wrap it to the back, fold the raw edge under and stitch it down. Create Whimsy prefers double fold because the two layers make the edge of a baby or bed quilt more durable.

Cut and join the strips

1. Square up the quilt. Trim the batting and backing even with the quilt top, and check that the corners are square.
2. Cut your strips across the width of the fabric, from selvage to selvage. Trim the selvages off each one.
3. Lay one strip face up. Lay a second strip face down across its end at a right angle, so the two ends form a square.
4. Draw a line from corner to corner across that square and sew on the line.
5. Trim the seam to ¼ inch and press it open.
6. Join all the strips into one long piece the same way.

A diagonal seam spreads the extra layers along the strip instead of stacking them in one spot. Pressing it open spreads them further. The result is a binding with no hard lump where two strips meet.

Press the binding in half

Fold the long strip in half along its length with the wrong sides together and press. Line up the two raw edges as you go. A neat, even fold gives an even binding width all the way around.

For 2½ inch strips, the folded binding is 1¼ inches wide. Roll it onto a cardboard tube or wind it loosely so it doesn't tangle while you sew.

How to bind a quilt with mitered corners

Start in the middle of one side, never at a corner. Leave a long tail loose so you can join the ends later. Joz Makes Quilts and Christa Quilts leave 6 to 8 inches, and Create Whimsy leaves 8 to 10. The extra 12 inches in the binding length pays for this tail and the four corners.

Before you sew, Christa Quilts suggests a dry run. Pin the binding loosely all the way around the quilt, folding the corners as you go. If a join between strips lands on a corner, move your starting point an inch or two so the join falls along a side. A seam folded into a miter is thick and hard to sew neatly.

1. Lay the binding on the front of the quilt with its raw edges even with the quilt's edge.
2. Sew with a ¼ inch seam. A walking foot helps feed all the layers evenly.
3. Stop ¼ inch from the first corner and backstitch. Lift the needle and turn the quilt.
4. Fold the binding straight up, away from the quilt, so it makes a 45 degree angle at the corner.
5. Fold it back down along the next side. The top fold should sit even with the edge you just sewed.
6. Start sewing again from the top edge and carry on to the next corner.

The fold you made in steps 4 and 5 holds the extra fabric that becomes the miter. When you turn the binding to the back, the corner falls into a neat diagonal on both sides.

Join the two ends

Stop sewing while there is still a gap of several inches before your starting point. Lay both tails flat along the edge in that gap. Trim them so they overlap by exactly the cut width of your strips, which is 2½ inches here.

Open the two tails and lay them at a right angle, right sides together. Sew them on the diagonal, just as you joined the strips. Check the fit before you trim, then trim to ¼ inch, press the seam open and refold. Sew the last section to the quilt.

Finish the binding by hand or machine

Fold the binding over the edge to the back. The folded edge should just cover the stitching line you sewed on the front.

• By hand: Pin or clip the binding in place. Sew it to the backing with small, hidden stitches through the fold. At each corner, fold the miter closed and add a stitch or two to hold it.
• By machine: Sew the binding to the back of the quilt first, then wrap it to the front. Stitch along the fold from the front, close to the edge.

Hand finishing is slower, but the stitches hardly show. Machine finishing is faster and leaves a visible line of stitching on the front.

A few details from the tutorials make each finish easier:

• Thread for hand finishing: Christa Quilts cuts the thread about 18 inches long and starts with a quilter's knot hidden under the binding. The tutorial sews each corner closed on the front and the back.
• Big stitch binding: Joz Makes Quilts sews the back down with a larger needle and thicker thread, such as Perle 8 or sashiko thread. The stitches show on purpose. Joz starts with stitches about ¼ inch long and says the spacing is up to you. A striped binding fabric helps keep the spacing even.
• Machine stitch choice: Christa Quilts sews from the front with a decorative stitch that stays within the ¼ inch width of the binding. Stitching right next to the binding seam, in the ditch, gives a quieter look.
• Holding it in place: Create Whimsy uses pins or binding clips on bed quilts, and finds a mini quilt may not need them.

Bias binding for curved edges

You cut bias strips at 45 degrees to the threads, so they stretch. You can make them from one square of fabric as a continuous strip. The calculator works out that square from the binding length and strip width.

For the same queen quilt, 382 inches × 2½ inches is 955 square inches. The square root of that is about 30.9 inches. Add one strip width and round up, and you need a 34 inch square, which is 1 yard of fabric. The straight-grain strips for this quilt need only ¾ yard, so keep bias binding for edges that really curve.

Once the binding is on, the quilt is done. Still planning the rest of the project? The quilt calculator lists backing, batting and binding together, and the guide on how to piece a quilt back covers the back. For more on mitered corners, see National Quilters Circle's corner tutorial.

Sources and further reading

• Christa Quilts: how to bind your quilt.
• Create Whimsy: how to bind a quilt, step by step.
• Joz Makes Quilts: Quilt 101, binding.
• National Quilters Circle: mitered binding corners.

Video tutorial

"The Ultimate Quilt Binding Tutorial with Jenny Doan of Missouri Star (Instructional Video)" by Missouri Star, on YouTube. The video loads only when you press play.