Open Hanging sleeve in the studio. The form on this page is that calculator.
Why a hanging sleeve has ease in it
A hanging sleeve is a tube on the back of a quilt that a rod or a show hanger slides through. Show quilts are almost always hung on a four-inch sleeve. A tight tube makes a bump you can see from across the room, because the rod fills the sleeve and pulls the front out of shape. Ease is the extra half inch that keeps the front flat.
The strip is also an inch shorter than the quilt, so the ends sit inside the binding and the rod does not peek out at the sides. Sleeve fabric is hidden. A leftover is the usual choice, and the yardage is small enough that a scrap often covers it.
How the sleeve strip is calculated
- Cut height = finished depth × 2, plus 1 inch (half an inch of seam and half an inch of ease)
- Cut length = quilt width minus 1 inch
- Strips = that length divided by the usable fabric width, rounded up
- Yardage = strips × cut height, rounded up to the next eighth of a yard
A four-inch sleeve is cut 9 inches tall. Sew the strip into a tube, press the seam open, and hem the short ends. Stitch the top of the tube into the binding seam, then hand-sew the bottom edge to the back. The binding itself is on the binding calculator.
Sleeve cuts
Yardage assumes 42 inch usable fabric. A strip longer than that is pieced.
| Quilt width | Finished depth | Cut the strip | Yardage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 in | 4 in | 9 × 39 in | 1/4 yard |
| 60 in | 4 in | 9 × 59 in, two strips | 1/2 yard |
| 90 in | 4 in | 9 × 89 in, three strips | 3/4 yard |
| 60 in | 3 in | 7 × 59 in, two strips | 1/2 yard |
How to use this calculator
- Measure the width of the edge the rod will sit on. For a show quilt that is the top edge.
- Leave the finished depth at 4 inches unless the rod is thicker. A display pole at home often wants a deeper sleeve.
- Set the fabric width, then read the cut height, the cut length, and the yardage. Piece the strips if the card asks for more than one.
Tips for hanging
- Finish the sleeve before the binding if you want the top edge caught in the binding seam. Sewing it on afterwards means hand-stitching both edges.
- A 3 inch sleeve on a 60 inch quilt is still half a yard. You still need two strips across 42 inch fabric. The depth changes the cut height more than the yardage, until you cross an eighth.
- Hem the short ends so the rod does not catch a raw edge inside the tube.
When the piece is part of a whole quilt. A sleeve is a finishing scrap. It is not part of the quilt top's yardage. The fabric calculator counts every piece in a design, then adds binding, backing, and batting. These pages answer one question at a time.