Fabric & Yardage Calculators

Getting the right amount of fabric is one of the most important steps in any sewing project. Too little and you cannot cut all your pieces; too much wastes money. Fabric is sold by the metre in the UK (or sometimes by the yard for imported patterns), and comes on bolts in standard widths — typically 112cm (44"), 137cm (54") or 150cm (60") for dressmaking fabrics.

Commercial sewing patterns list fabric requirements for specific bolt widths, but if your chosen fabric comes in a different width, you need to recalculate. Our fabric width converter handles this conversion. Directional fabrics (one-way prints, nap fabrics like velvet, or fabrics with a distinct pattern direction) require additional yardage because all pieces must be laid out in the same direction.

Always pre-wash your fabric before cutting. Cotton can shrink 3–5%, linen up to 10%, and some knits even more. Our fabric shrinkage calculator helps you buy enough extra to account for this. Bias binding, a common finishing technique, is cut at 45 degrees to the grain, which means you use more fabric than you might expect — our bias binding calculator works out exactly how much square fabric you need for any length of binding.