How to Estimate Fabric Yardage

You walk into a garage sale, have you're eye on a nice bolt of fabric, but not sure if it's enough to create you're project. Can you imagine taking a chance on the yardage, coming home to create your project, and finding out you’re 1, 2, or even 3 yards short? Follow these steps and chances are you won’t ever come home with too little fabric. Do you buy the fabric before actually choosing your pattern? Yup, I'm one of those to, and I’ve got the perfect chart for determining how much is enough. Read on, and let’s explore the world of fabric!

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Determine what type of fabric it is, so that you can determine how thick it is. The thickness of the fabric determines how to estimate the yardage. This is just an estimation process, but you won’t get an accurate estimation without knowing about how thick the fabric is.

2. This will give you a good guide for determining the thickness of fabrics. Generally speaking chiffon, lace, and tulle will require 3 wraps around the bolt to equal one yard of fabric. Heavy weight fabrics such as velvet, cottons, satins, and jean fabrics will require just two wraps around the bolt.
   
   So you’re ready to start estimating, eh? Start out by taking a bolt of fabric. Inspect the bolt, look how the fabric wraps around it several times. A fabric that is thin will require a bit more wraps or layers to equal one yard, and a fabric that is half an inch in thickness would require two wraps around the bolt to equal one yard of fabric. So the trick to this is to estimate how thick the fabric is, and always buy a little more than you need. It’s always best to overbuy than to not have enough, rush to the store and then find they’ve sold out.

3. Take a look at my photo # 2; the picture contains five yards of fabric, and pictures a thin and sheer fabric such as chiffon. The yardage was determined by counting a yard for every three layers of fabric because of thinness of the fabric. Notice my finger holding three layers? This signals one yard of fabric. You can see from the photo that I separated the layers so it is easier to see. For thicker fabrics such as velvet, jean materials, cottons, or satin it is best to stay with two wraps for every one yard of fabric.

4. Try and do estimation by yourself. Take a bolt of fabric, determine the thickness of the fabric, and count the layers it holds. Remember that for thicker fabrics it’s every two wraps for one yard of fabric, and for thin fabrics it’s every three wraps for one yard of fabric.

Tips & Warnings

• When you’re at a garage sale, a local flea market, or even the fabric store these ideas will be very handy for determining yardage. If you don’t have a source of measuring accurately, this is a proven method that will get you a great estimate on fabric yardage. The following measurements are for garment and household projects. A small or medium blouse takes 2 ½ yards of fabric A large or extra large blouse takes 3 yards of fabric Straight and simple skirts such as A-line or gathered take typically twice your unfinished length Jackets take 2 ½ yard for 45” width fabric and 1 ½ for 60” width fabric Simple dresses take 3 ½ yards for 30” width fabrics, 3 ¼ yard for 45” and 50” width fabrics Long curtains typically run from 2 to 5 yards of fabric and 40” to 60” in width for each panel Window shams or shades are usually 2 to 5 yards of fabric and range from 45” to 60” in width.
• If you do not buy enough fabirc now chances are you won't be able to later. Alwayd remember to buy extra fabric so you won't be short later.