Sewing Fabric Yardage Calculator

Choose a project type, or pick Custom and type the 45" yardage printed on your pattern envelope for your size. Select the fabric width on the bolt (45", 60" or 108"), say whether it has nap, and set a waste buffer. The panel shows yardage before the buffer, the amount to buy, and the same length in inches and metres.

The fitted-dress preset is 3 yards. On 45" non-directional fabric the width factor is 45 ÷ 45 = 1 and the nap factor is 1, so yardage before buffer is 3.00 yd. A 10% buffer makes it 3 × 1.10 = 3.30 yards to buy, shown as 119 in or 3.02 m.

Most fabric shops cut to the eighth or quarter yard, so round up to 3 3/8 or 3 1/2 yards at the counter. Rounding down is how a hem facing ends up pieced from scraps.

Width scaling: yardage at width = base yardage × (45 ÷ fabric width). The 45" baseline is the width many pattern envelope charts list first. Doubling the width halves the yardage in this model.

Nap allowance: if Has Nap is selected, yardage at width × 1.2. With nap, every piece must point the same way, so pieces cannot be turned end to end to nest.

Waste buffer: yards to buy = (yardage at width with nap) × (1 + buffer ÷ 100). The buffer field runs from 0% to 50%.

Unit conversions: inches = yards × 36; metres = yards × 0.9144.

Project presets (yards at 45"): pillowcase or craft 1, simple top 1.5, A-line skirt 1.75, button-up shirt 2.25, wide-leg pants 2.5, fitted dress 3, lined jacket 3.5, maxi dress 4. These are planning averages for a mid-size garment, not figures for any particular pattern.

Keep the 3-yard dress and the 10% buffer and change only the fabric. On 60" non-directional fabric, 3 × (45 ÷ 60) = 2.25 yd, and the buffer brings it to 2.48 yards, 25% less than on 45" fabric.

Now make that 60" fabric a napped velvet. Width scaling still gives 2.25 yd, the nap factor lifts it to 2.70 yd, and the buffer makes 2.97 yards. The velvet on the wider bolt needs almost as much as plain cotton on the narrower one (3.30 yd), because the 20% nap allowance cancels most of the width saving.

At 108", the width usually sold for quilt backs, the same 3-yard baseline scales to 1.25 yd and 1.38 yards with the buffer. Treat that as an upper bound on the saving; very wide fabric rarely lets garment pieces nest as tightly as the straight ratio assumes.

True nap means a pile or brushed surface that shades differently depending on direction: velvet, velveteen, corduroy, faux fur, some fleece and satin. Directional prints have an obvious up and down, such as animals, lettering or a border motif. Both need the Has Nap setting, and so does any fabric you intend to cut with all pieces facing one way.

Pattern repeat matching costs more than nap alone, because each matched piece may have to slide down the fabric until the motif lines up. A workable estimate is up to one full repeat for every piece that must match. Four matched pieces on a plaid with an 8" repeat could use 32" extra, about 0.89 yd. On 45" fabric with nap switched on (3.60 yd before buffer), that is roughly a 25% buffer, and the calculator returns 4.50 yards.

Stripes and plaids behave like directional fabric even when they look symmetrical, since uneven plaids only match one way. When in doubt, switch nap on.

Natural fibres such as cotton, linen and rayon can shrink the first time they are washed, and a garment cut before washing shrinks with them. Pre-wash the fabric the way you will launder the finished piece, and measure shrinkage rather than guessing: cut a 10" square, wash and dry it, and remeasure. A square that comes back at 9.6" has shrunk 4% in that direction.

Add that percentage to your normal buffer. A 4% shrink on top of a 10% buffer rounds to a 15% buffer, which takes the 45" dress from 3.30 to 3.45 yards. Synthetics such as polyester usually need little or no shrinkage allowance, but the swatch test still settles it.

The calculator scales a single baseline figure; it does not lay out real pattern pieces. Large pieces such as a full circle skirt or a long coat front may not fit across narrow fabric at all, and envelope charts sometimes show less saving at 60" than the straight 45 ÷ 60 ratio gives. The fixed 20% nap factor is an average, and the presets are not specific to any pattern. For expensive fabric, check your pattern envelope's own 60" column or make a paper layout on a marked table before buying.

For quilts, the Quilting Fabric Calculator handles backing panels, binding strips and batting, where seam direction rather than nap changes the yardage. If your project is knitted rather than sewn, the Knitting Gauge Calculator turns a swatch into cast-on and row counts, and the Yarn Yardage Estimator plays the role this tool plays for fabric, working out how much yarn to buy. For crochet throws, the Crochet Blanket Dimensions Calculator sizes stitches and skeins from a target blanket size.