How much fabric do you need? Enter your cut pieces and your fabric's width, and this calculator lays the pieces out in rows the way you would on a cutting table, then rounds up to the next 1/8 yard.
Fabric yardage calculator
Pieces
Width and length in inches, as cut. Example: a pillow front and back are 2 pieces of 19 × 19.
Read this first. This is a simple row layout, not a pattern layout, so curved pattern pieces need more. "44/45 in" fabric usually loses a little to the selvages, so we use 42 in by default; measure yours. We don't guess shrinkage. Pre-wash a measured scrap and enter the percent you see. A yard is exactly 36 inches. Source: NIST: SI units of length
Quick conversions
- 1/8 yd = 4.5 in · 1/4 yd = 9 in · 1/3 yd = 12 in · 1/2 yd = 18 in · 2/3 yd = 24 in · 3/4 yd = 27 in
- 1 yd = 36 in = 0.9144 m exactly. Source: NIST
- A "fat quarter" is usually a half yard cut in half across the width, about 18 × 21 in from 42-in fabric.
Measuring and cutting
rotary cutter 45mmStraight cuts, fastself healing cutting mat 24x36Pairs with a rotary cutterquilting ruler 6x24For straight strips and squaring upfabric measuring tapeSoft tape for bodies and curvesfabric scissors dressmaker shearsUse them only on fabric
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