Fabric & Sewing Calculator
Work out how much fabric to buy for your sewing project, plus a waste and seam allowance buffer and the total cost, all in one place instead of juggling three different calculators.
Common widths: 36", 44"-45", 54", 60". Check your bolt's selvage-to-selvage measurement.
Garment sewing typically needs 10-15% extra for seam allowances, pattern matching, and shrinkage. Quilting or simple home decor projects can often use less, around 5-8%.
Your fabric yardage will appear here
Enter your fabric width, piece size, and quantity, then click calculate.
Quick Answer
Divide your fabric width by your piece width to see how many pieces fit per row, then divide your total pieces needed by that number, rounding up, to get the number of rows. Multiply rows by piece length and convert to yards for your base yardage. Add a 10-15% buffer for seam allowances and pattern matching on garment projects, then multiply the buffered yardage by your price per yard for an estimated cost.
How It Works: Formula & Variables
Total Yardage = ((Rows Down × Piece Length) ÷ 36) × (1 + Waste % ÷ 100)
- Pieces Across
- Fabric width ÷ piece width, rounded down to a whole number of pieces per row.
- Rows Down
- Pieces needed ÷ pieces across, rounded up to the next full row.
- Base Yardage
- Rows down × piece length, converted from inches to yards (÷ 36).
- Waste/Seam Buffer
- Extra yardage added for seam allowances, cutting mistakes, and pattern matching, commonly 10-15% for garments.
This assumes pieces are cut without rotating them 90 degrees, which matters for fabrics with a directional grain, nap, or print. Nothing hidden, this is the exact math the calculator runs.
Worked Examples
Example 1: 60" wide fabric, 20"x30" pieces
With 60" wide fabric and a 20" wide piece, 3 pieces fit across each row (60 ÷ 20 = 3). For 4 pieces total, that's 2 rows (4 ÷ 3, rounded up). Each row uses 30" of fabric length, so 2 rows need 60" total, or 1.67 yards before the buffer. A 10% waste/seam allowance buffer brings that to 1.83 yards. At $12/yard, the estimated cost is $22.00.
Example 2: 44" wide fabric, 15"x22" pieces
With 44" wide fabric and a 15" wide piece, 2 pieces fit across each row (44 ÷ 15 = 2.93, rounded down to 2). For 6 pieces total, that's 3 rows (6 ÷ 2 = 3). Each row uses 22" of length, so 3 rows need 66" total, or 1.83 yards before the buffer. A 15% seam allowance buffer for garment sewing brings that to 2.11 yards.
Key Concepts
Base yardage vs. total yardage: Base yardage is the raw amount your pieces need with no room for error, straight from the layout math. Total yardage adds your waste/seam allowance buffer on top, and that's the number to actually take to the fabric store, since it covers cutting mistakes, seam allowances, and pattern matching.
Pieces across and rows down: This calculator lays out your pieces the way you would on a cutting table: as many as fit side by side across the fabric width, then enough rows to reach your total piece count. It assumes pieces aren't rotated 90 degrees, the safer assumption for most patterns where fabric grain direction matters.
Why generic yardage calculators fall short: Most fabric calculators stop at "how many yards do I need" based on pure geometry, without accounting for the fact that garment sewing almost always needs extra fabric for seam allowances and pattern matching. That gap is exactly where sewists end up short at the cutting table.
Common Mistakes
Buying the exact base yardage with no buffer: Cutting mistakes happen, seam allowances aren't free, and directional prints need extra fabric to match at the seams. Buying only the bare-minimum yardage often means a second trip to the store, and the dye lot might not match anymore.
Ignoring fabric width when estimating yardage: Pattern envelopes usually list yardage for a specific fabric width, like 44/45". If your fabric is a different width, the amount you need changes, sometimes by a lot, so it's worth recalculating rather than trusting the envelope's number as is.
Not increasing the buffer for prints that need to match: A 10% buffer might cover solid fabric fine, but stripes, plaids, and large-scale prints that need to line up at the seams can eat up 20% or more extra fabric. Underestimating this is one of the most common reasons sewists run short mid-project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Garment sewing usually needs 10-15% extra fabric on top of the base yardage, to cover seam allowances, hems, and pattern matching on prints, stripes, or plaids. Quilting and simpler home decor projects, like plain pillow covers or curtains, can often get by with less, maybe 5-8%. This calculator defaults to 10%, but you can adjust it for your project.
Fabric width decides how many pattern pieces fit side by side in a row across the bolt. Wider fabric, say 60 inches, often lets you fit more pieces per row than something narrower like 36 or 44 inches, which can cut down the total length you need to buy, even if the price per yard runs a bit higher for wider goods.
Not on its own. The base calculation assumes pieces can go in any orientation without matching a pattern. If you're working with a directional print, stripe, or plaid that needs to line up at the seams, bump up your waste/seam allowance percentage manually, often to 20% or more, to cover the extra fabric that pattern matching eats up.
Quilting cotton is most often sold at 44-45 inches wide, though a few specialty prints show up at 36 inches. Apparel and home decor fabrics, especially knits and wider wovens, tend to run 54 or 60 inches wide. Check the actual bolt though, since widths vary by manufacturer and fabric type.