Before you buy anything, sketch out a design for your project. 2. A Quilt blog- Quilting Basics, blocks, quilt alongs plus easy sewing projects and free patterns for beginners. If you just need one piece of fabric and it fits into the width of your fabric, you probably don’t even need to be reading this, but we’ll explain just in case! I'm always looking for simple ways to create – this includes the times when . Fat quarters, jelly rolls, charms… it’s a strange way to talk about lengths of material. The measurements by which fabric is sold can seem a bit baffling when you first hit the shops. Usable width of fabric after the selvedge is removed is 40" 1. If your quilt is larger than 42in, for example 59in x 80in, you’ll need 3½yds of 42in wide fabric. For the backing, you will need approximately 2 yards. If you go for this option then you’ll need your backing fabric to be at least 4in larger all round than the quilt top. Decide how much of the quilt top will be made up of quilt blocks, and how much of its size will be taken up by borders and/or sashing. Start with the the border and outer seam allowance, then take this away from the quilt width and you’ll know how wide an area you have to fill with blocks or shapes. Take your desired finish quilt size and divide by your finished block measurement. Your last result is how much fabric you will need to make the quilt binding. We'll go through the steps a bit more quickly. Since I ended up with 3.1 yards I’m going to bump my final cut up to 3.25 … How many quilt blocks you need for each row and column in your patchwork is calculated as the quilt dimension (the number at the top of the column) divided by the Finished Block Size. Basic measurements are included on this quilt size chart to help determine how many quilt blocks are needed to complete your project. Let's say you want to make 20 identical Birds in the Air quilt blocks like the one shown in the upper right corner of the illustration. Approximately four inches should be added to the length and width of the backing fabric for small quilts, and eight inches should be added for large quilts. Save up to 82% on your first 3 issues when you subscribe! If you’re buying fabric off a roll  (or ‘bolt’) then you’ll usually buy it  by the yard (36in/91cm) or the metre (100cm/39in). This tutorial breaks down the math so that you can make a quilt top any size that you prefer and get an estimate on how much fabric is needed. This means there was 1-1/2″ of extra fabric on each side. A yard of fabric is 36 inches long, so divide the length of fabric required, 11-5/8 inches, by 36 inches. Now divide 30 (the required number of squares) by 10 (the cuts you'll make per strip), making strips required to cut the squares, assuming no waste. Let us explain how to shop with confidence! Have another idea to offer? This means you can cut larger pieces than you would be able to from a regular (or ‘long’) quarter. 9-7/8 inches x the 3 required cuts (even though one need be a partial width) = about 30 inches of fabric. It's Easy to Calculate How Much Fabric Is Needed to Make a Quilt. hen it comes to buying fabric, how do you know how much to get so you’ve got enough but aren’t left with too many scraps? At least 104" x 93" (fits a 78"x80" bed with a 13" drop on three sides, no pillow tuck) 1. Here’s a chart which roughly matches the size of your mattress to the size of the quilt ne… It's a nine-patch design, with three major grids across and three down—nine units in all, even though the lower right block half is made from just one triangle. 30 inches divided by 36 inches (yard) = 0.83 yard, bump up to 1 yard to allow for shrinkage and provide a bit of excess for squaring up. The 60 triangles divided by the two each square yields means 30 squares are required. Keep in mind that mitered borders require longer strips than butted borders. Then, round up this number to the closest whole number. Using 44-inch-wide Fabric You will need three lengths of 44-inch-wide fabric to make a queen size comforter. Send it me, and I will add it here. To help with this process, I have created a quick quilt size chart for easy reference. Knowing how much fabric do I need for a quilt backing is actually a little trickier than you may first think. Now let's figure the yardage requirement for the large green triangles. Zoe's our Senior Digital Editor at Gathered, as well as being a powerhouse of quilting knowledge and expertise. 4 yards of flannel or cotton fabric for the top of the quilt (we used (4) 1-yard cuts of quilting cotton) 4 yards of flannel for the middle of the quilt 4 yards of flannel for the back of the quilt (we used the same color for both the middle and back of the quilt) How many yards / meters of fabric to make Men’s Jacket ? Follow the same procedure for each part of the block, adding together yardages for like fabrics. You will need the following information: 1. Cut the yardage in half and then re-join along the long edges using a slightly larger seam than usual. Just remember that these finished quilt sizes are approximate and can vary 4” – 8”. For a rectangle, the calculator calculates the yardage to be cut off a bolt of fabric (given the width of fabric entered above). .Do you need some quick reference charts for all those pesky bits of information such as how . How much Fabric do I need ? 112/36 = 3.1. If you’d prefer to get someone else to do the hard bit, there are seamstresses who offer a long-arm quilting service – this means you send them all the parts of your quilt and they’ll assemble and stitch the quilt together for you with decorative designs. If your quilt is over 80" wide, consider using the wide backing sold on this page. Grid size is a 1" finished square (that is the smallest patch I'll work with) 1. The other two solids should be a contrast to the main color. 10 squares required divided by 4 per strip = 2.5, or 2 strips plus about a half strip, each 9-7/8 inches wide. Jelly rolls were originally produced by fabric company Moda, but other companies also make similar bundles with names such as We’ve got together with the Beginner’s Guide to Quilting, to bring you this handy guide to help plan your project. Quilt Size Chart . Most of our fabric is sold in full … Half of a ‘fat quarter’, this is a piece of fabric measuring 9x18in. Now tension needs to … This will give you the number of blocks you need to achieve your desired finished size. When you are laying out your blocks in a random pattern, you can get a general idea of how many blocks of each fabric you’ll need to cut out by dividing your total blocks amount by the number of fabrics you’ve chosen. We’ve got together with the, A bundle of 20 to 40 strips of fabric that each measure 2½x44in. Strip pieced when possible 1. How many different fabrics are you going to use? For Titianmom, I'm calculating yardage for a king size quilt: 1. Make a rough sketch on paper or use computer software to draw the quilt. Once you've determined widths and styles, it's easy to calculate border yardage. All nine grids in this block contain half-square triangles, and we must add 7/8 inch to the finished size of a half-square triangle to calculate its cut size, making seam allowances. Once you’ve got an idea of your finished quilt size measurements, you can work out how much fabric you’ll need. If you’re making a bedspread, measure the length, width and height of your mattress, then add as much extra fabric as you’d like to allow for the quilt to hang down below the edges. I have to total amount of fabric I need in inches but I need it in yards. Prepare the backing fabric by trimming off the selvedges and pressing. 20 blocks x 1 triangle per block = 20 triangles, 20 triangles divided by 2 (the number that can be cut from a 9-7/8 inch square) = 10 squares required, 40-inch width of fabric divided by 9-7/8 inches = 4.05, or 4 squares per strip. If you think you will need about 5 yards of fabric total, gather 6 or 7 yards worth of scraps. Check the information on the end of the cardboard tube around which the fabric is wrapped or ask the store to measure it for you so you can be sure how much you’re buying. Heather then explains that extra yardage is required around the perimeter of the quilt depending on the type of quilting being done. We've put together a simple guide for how to calculate fabric yardage for quilts, including handy standard quilt sizes chart to guide you and inches to cm conversion charts. You should also leave a little extra fabric for seam allowances. 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