If working out how much backing fabric to buy has ever made you stare at a calculator and sigh, this is going to feel like such a relief. In her latest video Steffanie from Gettin' Stitchy shares a really clever little hack for sizing your quilt backing so it fits your patchwork perfectly without leaving you with armfuls of leftover fabric or, worse, coming up short.
Here is why this one is worth watching:
- A simple, repeatable formula. Steffanie shares her 60 percent scale up rule, which is easy to remember and works on quilts of all sizes, so you can use it again and again without doing the maths from scratch.
- A backup if you love a worksheet. She also links to a diagonal backing worksheet that fills the same purpose, which is lovely if you prefer to plug numbers into a form rather than work it out in your head.
- The kind of tip that pays for itself. Sizing backing correctly saves real money on fabric, and it saves the heartbreak of running short halfway through basting, which makes this one of those quiet, behind-the-scenes hacks every quilter benefits from.
Do you have a formula you swear by for sizing your backing, or do you tend to wing it each time? We would love to hear in the comments how you usually work it out.
If you would rather work from a table than a formula, our complete guide to quilt backing lists the yardage for every common size at both 42 and 108 inch widths, and covers cutting, the selvage, the seam and pressing.
