How to Find How Much Fabric is Needed for a Quilt?
If you don't want to be left short-sheeted, follow the old carpenter's adage---"measure twice, cut once---before starting your quilt. This will help ensure that you won't have to re-cut squares and prevents wasted time and money. Planning a quilt may be a daunting task, especially if it's your first time. But if you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, then careful planning can help ensure a successful project.
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Instructions
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1
Decide on a quilt pattern to determine the number of different fabrics you need.
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2
Decide on your quilt size, which size blocks you want to use and if you want sashing. Also consider how the quilt will lie on your bed, if you want extra to hang over the sides or tucked under pillows.
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3
Calculate how many blocks you need. Divide both the width and length of the quilt by the size of block you are using. For example, if you are making an 88-by-96-inch quilt using a 12-inch block, your quilt will be 8 blocks by 8 blocks. If you are sashing in between your blocks, you'll need fewer blocks; the number will be determined by the width of your sashing.
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4
Multiply the number of strips you need by the number of blocks you want to make. The supply list included in each quilt pattern will indicate how many strips of each fabric you will need for each block. Therefore, if you need 2 strips of each color per block, multiply 2 by 64 (8 blocks by 8 blocks from Step 3), which equals 128 strips.
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5
Determine how many full units you can get from each 42-inch width of fabric. Divide 42 inches by the length of strip needed for the pattern. For example, if your strip is 7-3/4" long, you would divide 42 by 7.75, which equals 5.42. You want to round down to 5 because .42 won't work for your quilt.
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6
Divide the number of units needed by the number of units from each 42-inch strip. For example, if you needed 128 units (from Step 1), divide by 5 (the number you calculated from Step 2), which equals 25.6. In this case, round up to a total of 26 strips of fabric.
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7
Multiply the number of fabric strips you need (from Step 3) by the width of each strip to calculate the number of inches needed. For instance, 26 multiplied by 3.875 equals 100.75, or 100-3/4 inches. So you'll need 101 inches of fabric for that color.
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8
Divide the number of inches needed by 36 inches (1 yard) to determine the number of yards needed for each color. So, 101 (from Step 4) divided by 36 inches equals 2.806, meaning you'll need 2.8 yards of fabric.
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- Photo Credit quilts image by Christopher Martin from Fotolia.com
