Fabric Yardage Calculator for Sewing
Estimate how many yards of fabric to buy for common sewing projects.
Enter garment type, size, and fabric width to get the yards needed plus a cutting buffer.
Buying too little fabric is one of those beginner mistakes that is nearly impossible to fix. Most stores do not guarantee dye lot consistency between bolts, and even the same colorway can vary enough to show in finished seams.
The yardage figures here are baseline estimates for the most common versions of each garment in standard fabric at 44-inch width (the most common bolt width for quilting and apparel fabric).
Wider fabric (54 or 60 inches) lets you nest more pattern pieces side by side, so you buy less length. The calculator adjusts for this on garments.
It does not adjust for the home-goods projects, and that is deliberate. A curtain panel, a pillowcase and a quilt backing are all sized by a fixed drop or a fixed finished dimension, so the length you buy is set by that measurement and not by how wide the bolt is.
Buy 60-inch fabric for a 72-inch curtain drop and you still need the same 2 1/2 yards, you just end up with more spare width. Discounting that yardage by a quarter is how people get home a yard short.
Fabric type matters too, even if it is not an input here.
Striped or plaid fabric with a repeat pattern requires extra yardage to match at seams, typically 15-25% more depending on the repeat length.
Pile fabrics (velvet, corduroy) must be cut in one direction, which limits how tightly you can lay out your pattern pieces. Add 20% for directional fabrics.
Always buy 10-15% more than the estimate, which this calculator adds automatically.
The extra yardage covers:
- Cutting errors and mis-cuts
- Pre-wash shrinkage (cotton can shrink 3-5%)
- Seam allowances if you add more than standard
- A spare piece to test stitch settings on before touching your main fabric
For garments with facings, linings, or interfacing, you will need additional fabric beyond what this calculator shows, typically another half yard to one yard depending on how much you are lining.
Cutting counters work in eighths of a yard, so the figure here is rounded up to the next eighth. Nobody sells you 2.06 yards.
If your pattern envelope lists a specific yardage, use that and add 10% for the above reasons.
This calculator is a planning tool for when you are fabric shopping without a pattern in hand.
How we build and check this calculator
This calculator runs entirely in your browser, so the numbers you enter stay on your device. The math behind it is written by hand and tested against worked examples and standard references before the page goes live.
SuperGlobalCalculator is independently built and maintained. See how we build and verify our calculators.