How much fabric do I need?

Every sewing chart answers this question with one number per garment. The numbers are real, but they were measured for one fabric width, one body height and two very wide size buckets. This page gives you the chart, the fine print that belongs next to it, and the two methods that turn "roughly two metres" into a number you can buy with confidence.

The chart

These figures come from published fabric requirement charts. They assume fabric 140 cm wide, a body height around 1.68 m, and just two size buckets. That is the deal you accept with any chart: one number has to cover five sizes.

The same charts put a coat at up to 3.85 m. Look at the skirt row for a moment: 0.9 m becomes 1.7 m between the two buckets, an 89 percent jump for "the same skirt". Pants jump by half. That is not a typo; it is the point where pattern pieces stop fitting side by side across the fabric. The skirt guide and pants guide explain exactly where that cliff sits.

Where published sources disagree

Compare a few references and the spread gets uncomfortable. For a dress, one published reference says 2 to 4 metres depending on the cut, while chart values run from 2.0 m for a fitted knee-length dress up to 3.65 m for a wide one. For a straight skirt, published figures range from about 1.15 m of 152 cm fabric to about 1.8 m of 107 cm fabric. Straight-cut pants appear as 1.30 m in one reference and 1.55 m in another at nearly the same width.

This is rarely sloppiness. Each source quietly assumed a different fabric width, garment length, size range and amount of ease. A chart figure without its assumptions is a number without a unit: it looks precise and tells you less than it seems to.

Narrow fabric, big sizes, one-way prints

Three multipliers matter more than the garment itself. First, width: the published rule for the chart above is that 110 cm fabric needs roughly 50 percent more, and 90 cm fabric nearly double. Second, size: the bucket jumps in the table are real and steep, especially for skirts and pants. Third, direction: if your fabric has a nap or a one-way print, every piece must face the same way, and commonly quoted figures put that penalty at 15 to 25 percent extra.

The standard advice for all this uncertainty is "when in doubt, add half a metre" (or half a yard). It works, but it means you routinely buy cloth you will not use, and occasionally still come up short. Both failure modes have a fix, and it is the same fix: stop estimating, start laying out.

The manual method: tape the width on the floor

Published sewing guides have recommended this for years, and it works. Put two parallel lines of masking tape on the floor, exactly your usable fabric width apart: the width on the bolt minus the selvedges, which costs you roughly 2 to 3 cm per edge. Lay every pattern piece between the lines with each grainline parallel to the tape. If your fabric is directional, keep every piece pointing the same way. Then measure the total length you used and add about 10 percent for shrinkage and cutting slack.

The result is honest because it is not an estimate: it is your pattern, your size, your width. The costs are practical. You need the pattern printed, assembled and cut before you buy fabric, a stretch of free floor longer than your yardage, and the patience to shuffle paper pieces until nothing overlaps.

The computed way: the same layout, without the floor

Software can run the identical process in seconds: give it the outlines of your pattern pieces, tell it the fabric width, and it packs the pieces and reports the length, including grainline and one-way constraints. Because it tries far more arrangements than floor patience allows, the number is usually tighter than the manual layout, and you can re-run it instantly for a different width or a directional fabric.

Know the limits before you rely on any layout tool, including ours. Pieces must be full outlines: PatternNest v1 does not model cut-on-fold, so mirror a half piece at its fold line into the full shape before uploading. Seam allowances are neither added nor removed; upload pieces the way they will be cut. And PDF patterns are not read directly. Pattern software like Seamly2D, Valentina or FreeSewing exports SVG or DXF, which works as is; a PDF pattern can be traced in Inkscape and saved as SVG.