How to Miter a Quilt Border

Patterned border fabrics look best with mitered corners.

Quilts often have two different strips around the outside of the quilt top: a border and a binding. Quilt borders can have butted or mitered corners. Butted corners have the vertical or horizontal border strips overlap the perpendicular border strip with a straight vertical or horizontal seam. With a mitered corner, the border strips meet at a 45 degree angle, like a picture frame or floor molding. Mitering requires a little more fabric than a straight or butted corner so take that into account when purchasing your fabrics.

Things You'll Need

• Border strips of fabric
• Tape measure
• Scissors
• Sewing machine or needle and thread

Instructions

1. Calculate the length of your border strips. The formula for the horizontal border strips is the width of the quilt top plus two times the width of the border plus 5 inches. The formula for the vertical strips is the length of the quilt top plus two times the width of the border plus 5 inches. For the width of the strips, add 1/2 inch to the desired finished border width for seam allowance.

2. Cut out your strips on the grain; this can be the lengthwise or crosswise grain. When cutting your strips, give yourself a bit of extra leeway with the length measurements; border strips that are too long are better than those that are too short.

3. Pin the border strips to the quilt top, right sides together, so that there is an equal amount of extra border piece hanging off both ends of the quilt top.

4. Sew the border strips to the quilt top with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, stopping 1/4 inch from where the two strips overlap.

5. Fold the borders back and press from the right side.

6. Place one border strip over the other at the corner where the two strips meet. Fold the top strip under at a 45-degree angle so that the points of the triangle are equal with the inside right angle and the edge of the other strip. Press the fold.

7. Fold the quilt top into a triangle with right sides together. The fold line should be at a 45-degree angle to the border strips you are currently working with and the outside edges of the quilt top should line up. The border strips should be laying on top of each other and the fold you pressed earlier should be unfolded.

8. Sew along the fold line on the wrong sides of the border strip.

9. Unfold the quilt to check the corner seam to make sure everything is lined up properly. If the seam is correct, cut the seam allowance to 1/4 inch. Press the seam open.

10. Repeat the process for the other three corners.

Tips & Warnings

• To determine how wide the finished border should be, use a width measurement that divides evenly into the block size. For example, if your quilt is made of 10-inch blocks, make the border 2 or 5 inches wide.

• When measuring your quilt for width and length, measure in the center of the quilt instead of along the edges.

References

• Quilting Made Easy; Karen Costello Soltys
• Quilt University: Mitering Borders
• McCall's Quilting: Borders