Fabric Yardage Calculator
Stop guessing at the cutting counter. Enter your piece size and quantity along with the fabric width, and this works out how many fit across, how many rows you need, and the total yardage — accounting for seams, nap, and waste.
Enter finished piece sizes and let this add the allowance, or set it to 0 if your dimensions already include seams.
Formula & how it works
Each piece is enlarged by seam allowance × 2 in both directions. Usable width is the fabric width less about an inch of selvedge. Pieces across is floor(usable ÷ piece width), rows is ceil(quantity ÷ across), and length is rows × piece length.
Without a nap the calculator also tries the rotated orientation and keeps whichever uses less fabric. Yards are length ÷ 36 after the waste allowance.
Worked example
Eight 12-inch squares with half-inch seams become 13 inches each. On 44-inch fabric with 43 usable, three fit across, so you need three rows of 13 inches — 39 inches, or about 1.19 yards once a 10% allowance is added.
Buying fabric confidently
Width changes everything
The same project can need very different yardage on 44-inch quilting cotton versus 60-inch apparel fabric, because what matters is how many pieces fit across. Checking the bolt width before calculating avoids the classic mistake of buying yardage worked out for a different width.
Nap costs fabric
Velvet, corduroy, and one-way prints all have to be cut in a single direction so the colour and texture match across the finished piece. That removes the option of rotating pieces to nest them, which is why a "with nap" layout on a pattern envelope always calls for more.
Leave a margin
Fabric can be cut slightly off-grain at the counter, shrink in prewashing, or turn out to have a flaw. A modest waste allowance covers those, and having a little left over is far cheaper than returning for more from a different dye lot that no longer matches.