I messed up....
 

I put a double border around my quilt. When I did SITD, I ended up having to put two little pleats in the inner border to take up the fullness, but it seemed to lay flat. Where did I go wrong and how could I have told ahead of time that I was wrong?

Thanks, Watson

How did you put the borders on? Did you cut a long strip of the border fabrics then sew to the end and cut off the extra? For some reason when you do this, it causes waves in the border. So I use the center of the quilt, measure that cut the border and sew it on. Sometimes it needs to be eased on but it stopped the waves.

Did you cut your borders on the lengthwise or crosswise grain?
There should be less stretch when cutting lengthwise. I also like
to starch all my fabric before cutting.

Quilting candy, that's exactly what I did.

You mean you measure from the centre and cut the border with that measurement?

Watson

Yes. Fold in half and measure, then cut 2 borders that measurement. Pin the borders before sewing, matching centers and edges. Iron, then fold the quilt top in the other direction to measure the middle and cut the 2 remaining borders to that length.

Sewing on the borders and before cutting almost always results in extra border fabric being sewn to the edge (one cause is quilt edge stretching as you sew, but there are other causes too). Cutting borders to size before sewing helps ensure that doesn't happen.

Yes, Prism99 is correct.

Really appreciated. Thanks.

Watson

I agree with Prism99. But if the quilt is over an inch in difference between the measurement of the center to the outside edge, you need to be a detective to find out where your seam allowance went awry or if it was the blocks not all being the correct size. That is why I prefer taking the time to check each block is the correct size. I would rather oversize my blocks and trim them down so that each one is the same size. Then you have no problem with a difference of the the center of your quilt compared to the outside measurement. Just finished sewing the blocks together.

measure 3 places - at both ends and across the middle. Average the three measurements and use that size to cut your border. Pin at the quarters and ease in if you need to. If it appears to be too much to ease in, you have a different problem, perhaps your cutting or seam width. Maybe you can go back and stitch again at some of the side blocks. You should only have to go in a couple threads on a few and you can cut out quite a bit of extra. WITHIN REASON. If it is way off, you need to investigate further and find out where the problem is. But, don't be too hard on yourself, even the most experienced of quilters gets one that just won't fit!