Do you have your quilt top finished and now need to purchase the backing fabric? Making sure you have the proper amount of backing is crucial to ensure your quilt finishes up perfectly. There are a few things to consider when purchasing fabric for the back of your quilt. What type of fabric you'd like to use; regular quilting cotton, or a softer, textured fabric? Is the quilt a wall-hanging or a bed quilt? Your budget is also something to consider. Will you be quilting the quilt yourself with a domestic sewing machine or longarm quilting machine, or is your preferred longarmer quilting it for you?
First, lets look at the type of fabric you want to use. There is of course 100% cotton fabric which comes in 45" and 108" wide referred to as "wide-backs". There is also flannel fabric for a cozier feel and then there is the new Fireside or Cuddletex fabric, which are soft with and added texture and dimension.
Fireside and Cuddletex
Both of these fabrics come in a variety of colours and widths. These fabrics quilt well and don't stretch. If your quilt is a wall hanging, I would stick to using a cotton backing in order for it to hang better and reduces bulk.
Blueberry Fields
Once you have decided on the fabric you want to work with for the backing, the next plan is how this fabric is going to lay. Is your quilt square or rectangular? Is it directional, meaning is there a definitive top and bottom? If it is directional and your backing is also directional, you need to take that into consideration if you are piecing the back. You will need more fabric if there's also a pattern to match, so measure between where the pattern repeats and add that, plus a little extra to your over-all amount of fabric to purchase. If you have to piece the backing, it is best to have the seam going horizontal from side to side instead of top to bottom, especially if you are quilting it on, or taking it to a longarm quilter to quilt on a longarm quilting machine like the Janome Quilt Maker Pro 20.
This way the seams are parallel to the roller bars on the frame and do not build-up bulk as the quilt rolls up. Vertical seams on the back are sometimes necessary, so you'll need to roll the fabric a little tighter over and around that seam so the backing stays more on-grain and doesn't ripple at the sides.
If you're taking the quilt to a longarmer, or finishing it yourself on a longarm quilting machine, like the Janome Quilt Maker 15, its helpful to have at least 4" to 5" extra backing fabric all around the quilt top. The top and bottom of the backing fabric will be attached to the leader cloth on the quilt backing roller and quilt take up roller and the extra fabric will compensate for the diameter of the roller bars, which will eat-up some of that fabric. There'll be ample room for the machine to freely move around to the edge of the quilt top and beyond without the machine bumping into the rollers. The extra width of the backing fabric also allows the clamps on the side of the frame to be attached to the fabric so it stays taught while quilting. You want extra fabric at the sides so the machine doesn't run into the clamps, especially when you're using the Pro Stitcher software to do computer guided quilting.
The same theories also apply for the batting, as well. The batting should be bigger than the quilt top by a few inches all the way around, too.
Now that you have all the necessary questions answered, lets get to it! How to measure for the backing and determine how much fabric to buy, you ask? We will do two scenarios. The first one will be using a wide-backing fabric which is non-directional.
Wide-backs come in a variety of colours and designs and are readily available at most quilt shops. Many of our Janome Canada dealers sell fabric, too! Wide-backs are great for bed quilts, wall-hangings and whole cloth quilts, which focus on the quilting versus the piecing. The price varies, often depending on the quality of the fabric. I personally avoid buying cheaper backing fabrics as the colours will often run and the fabric is stiffer and not as tightly woven, which means it usually won't wear well and last over time. Since the quilt's length measures less than 108", we can save money by turning the wide-backing fabric on it's side so we only need to buy just enough to cover the width of the quilt from side to side.
Lets take a quilt top that is 70" wide and 75" long. Usually the dimensions are always width first and length second so this makes it 70" x 75".
Our quilt is 70" wide, shown in red lines above, and I will add 5" for each side so that make it 80" wide. I will therefore need 80" of wide-backing fabric. To determine how many metres to buy, take the width you need (80") and divide by 39 inches (39 inches in one metre) which equals in our example, 2.05 meters. As a caveat, I will add a wee bit more to make sure it is cut straight, so I will buy 2.1 meters of wide-backing for this quilt top. The backing fabric is non-directional, so this works out beautifully!
The second scenario uses fabric which is the typical 45" wide for regular quilting cotton. However, you need to consider that most 45" wide fabrics are sometimes not really 45" wide, more like 44" or sometimes 43" of usable fabric depending on the width of the selvedges. I always err on the side of caution and use 43" in my calculations. There will be a seam running across the centre of the backing going from side to side, as indicated in the drawing below. We are going to turn the fabric so the selvedges are parallel with the top and bottom of the quilt top. This is fine to do if the print of the fabric is non-directional. If it's directional, the centre seam will be running vertically down the centre of the quilt.
When piecing a quilt backing, I always make these seams a little wider than 1/4"; 3/8" or 1/2", and press the seam open. I also remove the selvedges, or make small clips into it because it is quite a tight weave and will cause the seam to pucker. For a quilt top that is 75" long, we will need to add another 10" total, which in our example is 85" of backing fabric needed. With our fabric at 43" wide, we will need two widths of fabric, minus approximately 1" seam allowance (1/2" on each piece of fabric) which equals 85" when sewn together. Perfect! Just the length we need!
To determine how many metres to buy, take the width of the quilt, plus the 10" total needed for the extra backing fabric, which in our example equals 80". Remember that we need two widths of fabric which will be seamed together horizontally, so we need to double the total width. In our example it would be 80" x 2 = 160". Divide that number by 39" (39" in one metre) gives us 4.1 metres of backing fabric.
So, you'll see from our example that we need approximately twice as much regular 45" wide fabric for the backing than if we used the 108" wide-back. Depending on the price per metre, the regular 45" wide fabric could work out as the lesser expensive alternative - or not. However, it will need to be seamed, so also consider how much your time and trouble with worth, as well. Maybe the wide-backing will be the better deal in the long run.
It may sound like a lot of math, but once you get your head around which way the fabric is going, it's not that bad. Quick little drawings help, too! Now you are ready to head out to your favourite sewing or quilt shop for backing fabric to get those quilting UFO's done!
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