Quilt Binding Calculator
Binding is the finishing touch—and an awkward place to discover you are one strip short. Enter your quilt size and this calculator tells you how many strips to cut and how much fabric to buy.
It allows for corners, diagonal joins and an optional pattern repeat, then rounds the answer to a practical shop quantity. The visual strip plan gives beginners a quick check and experienced quilters a faster route to the cutting table.
Join loss is applied to the actual N−1 joins. Pattern matching remains a conservative allowance.
A clear result in five steps
- 1Enter quilt dimensions.
- 2Choose strip cut width and usable fabric width.
- 3Enter diagonal join loss.
- 4Add a pattern repeat only when matching is required.
- 5Cut the reported strips across the usable width.
The maths, without the mystery
Perimeter = 2 × (width + length). The strip count is the smallest whole number whose joined usable length, after actual join losses, covers the perimeter plus safety allowance.
Frequently asked questions
Why are there N−1 joins?
Joining N separate strips into one continuous length requires exactly N−1 connections.
Can I use this for curves?
This calculator plans straight-grain binding. Curves usually need bias binding.
Are selvedges included?
No. Use cuttable fabric width only.