How do I figure how much material to buy for the binding? My quilt is 80"x64" I want to cut the material in 3"strips. I'm planning to use a muslin. How wide should I get the muslin & how many yards? Next week JoAnn's has a good sale on muslin so want to make sure I get enough plus maybe some extra.

If your cutting WOF, not on bias, and USABLE fabric is about 40", if you got 3/4 yard, cut 3" strips-you can get 9 strips (figure on 8 strips). That is 8 x 40" = 320 inches usable strips, your quilt needs 288 inches, but you'll need extra-figure 300 inches-you'll have pleanty with 3/4 yard. I always keep extra binding when making it, so I can at a future time, use it for scrappy binding which I love on the right quilt!!

I agree with Vanuatu. 3/4 yard will do it for straight grain binding.

Jan in VA

Make sure the muslin is 40" wide. Sometimes it is narrower.

The answers you got were correct, but perhaps you want to know how to figure it out yourself.

I use 2 1/2 inch strips for double fold binding. Your quilt's perimeter (the distance all around) is 2 x 80 inches plus 2 x 64 inches, or 288 inches. You need to add another 12 inches or so for seams and corners, so you need about 300 inches of fabric. If your fabric has 40 usable inches in each strip (assuming you will cut it across the WOF), then this would be 300 / 40 = 7.5 strips, so round up to 8 strips. Each strip is 2.5" wide, so 8 x 2.5" = 20" of fabric needed. When you buy fabric, you have to allow for it not being quite square, and for shrinkage, so I would buy *at least* 2/3 yard (24") and more likely 3/4 yard (27"). Muslin shrinks more than some fabrics, so if you plan to pre-wash the muslin you might want to get more. And because muslin shrinks, I would definitely pre-wash.

Thanks for the math lesson that will really come in handy for future quilts.

Best to buy a yard rather than 3/4 just in case you have to even up before cutting your strips. The left over can always be used. I keep small strips of left over muslin near my machine to test on when I am getting ready to do decorative stitches.

Here's a handy dandy calculator to do the math for you!

http://www.quiltersparadiseesc.com/C...Calculator.php

Deffinatly need 3/4 of a yard for your binding.

There might be more tightly woven fabrics that may make a better binding instead of muslin- the binding gets a lot fo wear. I don't know about JoAnn's muslin, but I have not see any of their other fabric that is very heavy or woven tightly... (can you tell I don't like their fabrics?)