Open Pieces in the studio. The form on this page is that calculator.
Why dividing the areas over-counts
A yard of 42 inch fabric is 1,512 square inches. A 5 inch square is 25. Dividing says about 60 squares. You cannot cut 60, because 42 is not divisible by 5. You get eight across and seven down, which is 56, and two strips of waste along the edge. The leftover is real cloth, and it is not a square.
The calculator tries turning the piece as well, in case the other way wastes less. Yardage for a known number of pieces works the same way in reverse: strips across the fabric, as few as will hold the count, rounded up to an eighth of a yard. Fat quarters are the special case people ask for by name, an 18 by 21 rectangle. That page is the fat quarter calculator.
How the piece count is calculated
- Across = fabric width ÷ piece width, rounded down
- Down = fabric length ÷ piece height, rounded down
- Pieces = the larger of the two orientations
- Yardage = the orientation that buys less fabric, then rounded up to the next eighth of a yard
Fifty-six 5 inch squares is exactly one yard: seven strips, eight squares on each, from 42 inch cloth. Forty squares of the same size is less than a yard, and the card will not round it up to a yard's worth of squares you do not need. It rounds the length of cloth.
Squares from one yard
One yard here is 42 inches wide by 36 inches long. The last column divides the areas and rounds down. It matches the real count only when the piece divides the cloth exactly, which the 6 inch row does. Everywhere else it promises squares the edge will not yield.
| Square | You can cut | How they sit | Area would claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 1/2 in | 224 | 16 × 14 | 241 |
| 3 1/2 in | 120 | 12 × 10 | 123 |
| 4 1/2 in | 72 | 9 × 8 | 74 |
| 5 in | 56 | 8 × 7 | 60 |
| 6 in | 42 | 7 × 6 | 42 |
| 10 in | 12 | 4 × 3 | 15 |
How to use this calculator
- Choose whether you have a piece of fabric and want a count, or you have a count and want yardage.
- Enter the piece width and height, including seam allowance. A finished 4 1/2 inch square is cut at 5 inches.
- For a count from fabric, enter the width and the length of the cloth you have. A yard is 36 inches long.
- For yardage, enter how many pieces and the usable fabric width. The card picks the orientation that costs less.
Tips for cutting a stack of pieces
- Cut strips, then subcut. The nesting the calculator uses is strips across the width. Cutting one square at a time from a random spot wastes more.
- Directional and one-way prints cannot be rotated. If the card rotated the piece to save fabric, you may have to take the other orientation and buy the extra.
- Fussy cutting centers a motif and ignores this grid. Buy more than the count.
When the piece is part of a whole quilt. A pieced top is a list of these pieces, in several fabrics. The studio adds them up. This page is one fabric at a time. The fabric calculator counts every piece in a design, then adds binding, backing, and batting. These pages answer one question at a time.