Fabric Yardage Calculator for Clothes: Dresses, Skirts, Pants and Shirts

Pick a garment, style and size, then choose your fabric width. The calculator starts from our planning yardage chart and adds what the chart leaves out: extra for nap or one-way prints, prewash shrinkage and plaid or stripe matching.

Machines for dresses, skirts, pants and shirts

Woven garments need a smooth straight stitch, even feeding and a buttonhole you trust, and a serger for clean insides.

Intermediate

Juki

Juki HZL-G120 Computerized Sewing Machine

$819.00

Box feed and eight buttonhole types for shirts and dresses.

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Intermediate

Juki

Juki HZL-DX5 Computerized Sewing Machine

$1,099.00

Adjustable foot pressure and an automatic one-step buttonhole.

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Intermediate

Juki

Juki Pearl Line MO-654DE Serger

$599.00

A 2, 3 or 4 thread serger for ready-to-wear seam finishes.

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Prices change often, so confirm on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

How do you calculate how much fabric you need for clothes?

When you have a commercial pattern, the envelope back is the answer: it lists yardage for every view and size on 45 inch and 60 inch fabric, and it was worked out by laying the real pattern pieces on the fabric. This calculator is for everything before that point: planning a fabric purchase before you have chosen a pattern, buying from a shop that only sells precut lengths, estimating a self-drafted or copied garment, or deciding whether a gorgeous remnant is big enough.

It works in three steps, and each one is shown in the results panel:

1. Start from planning yardage. Our chart gives a base figure for each garment, style and size on 45 and 60 inch fabric, for plain fabric with no nap. A short sleeve, knee length dress in a medium is 2 3/4 yd on 45 inch fabric.
2. Scale for direction and shrinkage. Nap and one-way prints multiply the base by 1.10 or 1.15. Shrinkage multiplies again by your percentage. At 15 percent for nap, 2 3/4 yd becomes 3.16 yards, which rounds up to 3 1/4 yd.
3. Add matching and round up. For plaids and stripes, the calculator estimates the number of main cuts by dividing the base yardage in inches by 27 (at least two), adds half a repeat per cut and one extra repeat, and rounds the total up to the next eighth of a yard. An 8 inch plaid on the default dress means 4 cuts, 24 inches of matching allowance, and 3 1/2 yd in total. With nap as well, it is 3 7/8 yd.

Rounding up to an eighth of a yard matches how most US fabric counters cut. If your shop cuts only in quarter yards, round up once more.

Fabric yardage chart for common garments

Every garment and style in the calculator is below, in size M or the base size for home items. The nap column adds 15 percent, and the plaid column adds matching for an 8 inch repeat, both on 45 inch fabric. Click a garment for its full size chart.

These are planning estimates compiled from published sewing yardage guides and computed layouts, rounded to the nearest eighth of a yard. Fit, ease and design details move the number: a very full skirt, puffed sleeves, a lining or a big collar can each add half a yard or more. The full reference is our fabric yardage chart.

How much extra fabric do you need for nap, one-way prints and plaids?

Nap is a surface with a direction. Velvet, velveteen, corduroy, faux fur and brushed fabrics look lighter from one direction and darker from the other, so every piece must point the same way or the garment looks like two colors. One-way prints, such as animals that all stand upright, behave the same way. Plain fabrics let you turn pieces head to toe and nest them tightly, which is why a nap layout uses more. Published guidance, including many pattern envelopes that list a separate "with nap" yardage, usually lands at 10 to 15 percent more.

Plaids and stripes are about matching, not direction. Side seams, center fronts and sleeves should meet at the same point in the plaid, so each piece is placed at a matching line rather than wherever it fits. Even plaids can be turned, while uneven plaids also need a one-way layout, so use the nap setting as well.

The same rules apply to every garment. Full length pants in a medium go from 2 1/2 yd to 2 7/8 yd in corduroy, a typical napped pants fabric.

Is 60 inch fabric better for making clothes?

Wider fabric usually needs fewer yards, but not always fewer dollars. On 60 inch fabric, front and back pieces can often sit side by side, so the base dress drops from 2 3/4 yd to 2 1/8 yd. Long, narrow pieces such as pants legs save less, and large pieces such as circle skirts save more: the full circle skirt drops from 3 1/2 yd to 2 1/4 yd. Knits are almost always 58 to 60 inches wide, which is why the T-shirt in a medium needs just 1 1/2 yd. Before buying the wider bolt, compare the price per yard, and check the fabric width chart for the widths common to each fabric type.

If your pattern gives yardage for a width you are not buying, the fabric yardage converter estimates the equivalent by area with a waste allowance.

What sewing machine is best for garment sewing?

Garment sewing rewards precise feeding, a reliable buttonhole and good seam finishes more than a long list of decorative stitches. A mechanical or computerized machine with even feeding handles most wovens. The Juki HZL-G120 uses box feed and offers eight buttonhole types, and the Juki HZL-DX5 adds adjustable foot pressure for tricky fabrics.

For knits and ready-to-wear insides, a serger is the most common second machine. The Juki MO-654DE sews 2, 3 or 4 thread seams with differential feed, and a coverstitch machine such as the Janome CoverPro 2000CPX sews the stretchy hems on T-shirts. Good shears matter too: Gingher 8 inch dressmaker shears are a long-standing favorite for cutting garment fabric.