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How much fabric for a mitered (45°-corner) border. Strip lengths and yardage for a 4″ border by quilt size, plus the formula for any width.
Cut two strips 74″ and two strips 86″ long, each 4½″ wide. The quilt finishes at 68″ × 80″.
Pieced from width-of-fabric strips
Buy 1 yd — 8 strips at 4½″, joined end to end.
320″ of border in all, at 40″ usable per strip.
Cut lengthwise, no seams
Buy 2½ yd and cut the strips along the length of the fabric.
All four strips sit side by side across 42″ of usable width, so you buy the longest strip's length. Best for stripes and border prints, which a join would interrupt.
Strip length = side + 2 × border width + 6″ margin for the 45° miter. Cut width = finished width + ½″ for two ¼″ seams. Yardage rounds up to the next quarter yard; cut sizes to ⅛″.
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| Quilt Size | Yards |
|---|---|
| Baby / Crib | 0-3/4 yds |
| Throw / Lap | 1 yds |
| Twin | 1-1/4 yds |
| Full / Double | 1-3/8 yds |
| Queen | 1-1/2 yds |
| King | 1-5/8 yds |
Assumes a 4″-finished border, strips cut 4.5″ wide, pieced from width-of-fabric (44″) strips with 6″ trimming margin per strip. For a seamless (unpieced) border, cut lengthwise along the yardage instead — buy yardage equal to your longest strip length.
Striped and border-print fabrics show off a mitered corner best — solids work too.
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For a queen quilt (90×108") with a 4"-finished mitered border, you need about 1-1/2 yards: two strips cut 104" long and two strips cut 122" long, each 4.5" wide (4" finished + 1/2" seam allowance), pieced from 12 width-of-fabric strips.
Strip length = the quilt top's side length + 2 × border width + about 6" extra for the 45° miter and trimming margin. Cut two strips at this length for each pair of opposite sides. Always cut border strips longer than you think you need — trimming off extra is easy, running short is not.
Center each border strip on its side and sew, stopping and backstitching 1/4" from each corner (don't sew into the seam allowance). Fold the quilt diagonally at the corner, right sides together, and draw a 45° line from the inner corner to the outer edge through both border strips. Sew on the line, check it lies flat, then trim the seam allowance to 1/4" and press open.
A mitered border creates a continuous, uninterrupted line at each corner — especially important for striped, directional, or border-print fabrics, where a straight butted corner would create a visible seam mismatch. It uses slightly more fabric (extra length + the miter's trimming margin) than a butted border of the same width.