Mitered Border Quilt Tutorial

Today I would like to share with you the steps taken to make a multiple mitered border.
First you will need to determine the length of your borders.  My unfinished quilt top measured 25.5" square.

25.5 - (.25 + .25) for the seams will give a finished width of 25"

I wanted to add a 3" strip of white, followed by a 1.75" strip of feature fabric, and finish with a 3" strip of white.  I cut my white strips 3.5" wide and the feature fabric at 2.25" to accommodate the seams.  The finished width of my border will be 3 + 1.75 + 3.25 = 8"

Now the length needed for the borders can be determined by taking the finished width of the quilt top and adding the width of the two borders.


25" + 8" + 8" = 41"


So my border must be a little longer than 41".

I used width of fabric strips and sewed the white, feature and white border strips together for all four sides.

Next mark the centers of your borders and edges of your quilt top.  Fold the quilt top in half and press small creases on the edges to mark the centers of each side.  Fold the borders in half and press small creases on one side to mark the centers.

The back of the quilt top must also be marked 1/4" from the corners to indicate the start and stop points for sewing on the borders.

Lay your quilt top face up on your work surface and place the first border with right sides together, match up the crease marks, and pin in the center.  Pin along the edge to each corner, matching the raw edges of the quilt top and border.

With the quilt back facing up, sew the border on.  Begin at the 1/4" mark, sew a few stitches and carefully backstitch to the mark.  Sew until you reach the opposite 1/4" mark and backstitch again to secure the ends.

Apply all four borders in this manner.  Then fold your quilt top diagonally, corner to corner, with right sides together.  Match up the borders that meet at the corner and pin along raw edges.  Lay your ruler along the fold in the quilt top, with the 45 degree mark on the ruler on the seam line you just sewed.  Mark the border from the point at the corner out to the border edge.

Now pin along this new seam line, taking care to match up points of the featured strips.

Begin sewing at the point, backstitch to secure and carefully sew along your drawn line, to the edge of the border.  Sew slowly, removing pins as you go.  Don't pull on your fabric as you are sewing on the bias.  Take care to sew to the points where the featured strips meet.  Backstitch to secure the ends at the edge of the border.

Press the seam open and check the corner for accuracy before trimming seam to 1/4".

Here is how the corner will look from the right side when complete.

And here is my finished top!

Hope you find this tutorial useful!  I am adding it to my tutorial page, which can be found just below my blog header.  If you have any questions, please leave a comment or email me!

Keep On Quilting On!