Estimate cloth for a garment at your fabric's actual width, with pattern repeat matching computed from the repeat length, nap layouts, shrinkage, lining, and a quantity rounded to what the shop will cut.
Change the inputs that matter to your decision. Optional assumptions stay collapsed until you need them.
Usable width means selvedge to selvedge, less anything unusable at the edge.
3.38 yd of 45 in fabric, including pre-wash shrinkage.
That is 3.35 yd needed, rounded up to what the shop will cut. If your fabric has a print repeat or a nap, set them above — both change the answer materially.
| Base requirement | 3.25 ydDress, size M, quoted at 45 in of usable width |
|---|---|
| At 45 in | 3.25 ydScaled inversely with usable width |
| Pre-wash shrinkage | +0.1 yd3% allowed before cutting |
| Main fabric | 3.38 yd3.35 yd needed, rounded up to the nearest 0.125 yd |
Base requirements are typical figures for a straightforward layout at 45 inches of usable width; your own pattern envelope is more authoritative for that pattern. Directional prints, large pieces cut on the bias, and generous hem allowances all use more than this.
Practical notes about the inputs, assumptions, and result.
One extra repeat for every major piece that has to line up across a seam. A 9 inch repeat on a four-piece dress costs a full yard; a 3 inch repeat on the same dress costs a third of that. A flat percentage — the legacy tool added 20% regardless — cannot tell those apart, and it is the repeat length that decides.
Only up to a point. Requirement scales inversely with usable width while pieces still fit side by side, but the longest single pattern piece is a hard floor: no amount of width lets you cut a 50 inch skirt panel from a yard of cloth. The result says when you have hit that floor, so you know that buying wider will not help.
A nap is a pile or a one-way design — velvet, corduroy, a print with a top and a bottom. Every piece has to face the same direction, so pieces that would otherwise nest head to tail cannot, and the layout gets longer. Fifteen percent is the allowance pattern envelopes commonly print for it.
Yes, and then pre-wash before cutting. Cotton and linen commonly lose three to five percent on the first wash, and a garment cut from unwashed cloth will shrink after it is finished rather than before. The allowance is applied to the total, so it is in the quantity you buy.
Because that is how it is sold where metres are used. The legacy tool always priced per yard whatever unit it displayed, which quietly overstated a European purchase by nine percent. Here the price basis follows the unit you are reading.
Because a shop cuts to an increment, not to three decimal places. The result shows both the length you need and the length you will actually walk out with, so the cost matches the cut rather than the calculation.
Other tools in tailoring & sewing.
Choose a seam allowance for a garment and fabric, see the cloth a seam actually consumes, and convert a pattern from one allowance to another — with fractions reduced and metric paired the way patterns print it.
Grade a pattern between any two sizes from your own base measurements, with per-measurement grade rules, a wider grade above L, and the amount to slash and spread at each pattern quarter.
Convert the units a workroom actually uses: fractional inches, yards and metres, fabric weight between gsm and ounces per square yard, and iron temperatures by fibre.