In this tutorial, we show you how to cut your own 10″ Layer Cake squares for your quilting projects.
(Note that this tutorial is how to cut from yardage however if you would like to know how to cut layer cake squares from meters, then click here for that.)
We love pre-cuts! They save time and you don’t have to worry about coordinating fabrics, as it is all done for you. However, they can be expensive, and there are those times when you just can’t find the exact fabric you want for a particular project. This is where cutting your own layer cake squares comes into play and it’s pretty easy to do.
Watch the video tutorial below or scroll down for the written instructions
Tools used in this tutorial
How many 10″ squares can you cut from your fabric?
Most fabric is 40″- 44″ in width. This is the number of squares that can be cut from the following:
- ½ yard of fabric will yield 4 squares
- 1 yard of fabric will yield 12 squares
- 1¼ yards of fabric will yield 16 squares
- 2 yards of fabric will yield 28 squares
Let’s start cutting…
Note: In the step-by-step below we are using a piece of fabric that measures approx 22″ which yields 8 squares.
- The first step is to straighten one edge of the fabric, so lay the fabric on the table with the folded end facing towards you and the selvage end facing away.
- Line up one of the lines on your ruler along the folded edge.
- Trim the edge to straighten it.
- Now we need to trim off the selvage ends, so turn your fabric so that the selvages are on your right-hand side. (assuming you are right-handed)
- If you are left-handed turn the fabric so that it is in the position that is most comfortable for you to cut.
- Once you have trimmed off the selvages, turn the fabric around so that the folded side is facing towards you.
- Line up the fabric along the zero line on the mat.
- Place your ruler on the 10″ line.
- Make sure that one of the lines on your ruler is lined up along the folded edge.
- Slice through with your rotary cutter.
- Move the piece you have just cut aside.
- Move the ruler to the 20″ mark and cut the next 10″ square.
- You now have two strips that are 10″ in width.
- Turn the strips around so that 10″ width is facing you and you are now ready to cut the long strips into 10″ squares.
- Place the ruler on the 10″ line on your mat and cut.
- You now have four 10″ squares.
- Move the ruler to the 20″ mark and cut.
- You now have eight 10″ squares.
And there you have it that’s how to cut your own 10″ layer cake squares from your yardage.
Eleanor Robles says
Enjoy learning anything about sewing.
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Shashikant Walimbe says
In India also the legal measure is metric (mm, cm, metre) while yards and inches are liberally used however in Engineering only metric is used as it is more accurate and easy. Generally 25mm(2,5 cm) come to 1 inch, 100mm or 10 cm come to 4 inches, 200mm come to 8 inches and so on though it is very near for tailoring and cloth measurements. Imagine measuring 1/4 inch, 3/8 inch, quarter inch, The stitching margin is 1/4 inch, all are odd numbers. In metric the stitching margin can be 1 cm or 5mm.
1yard is very approximately 915 mm. and 39” + 3/8″” makes 1 metre (approx). i faced more problems while using cutting mats so I purchased both inch marked and cm marked cutting mats.
All this adventure is added to quilting aventure.
Seren says
Hi
I’m wanting to know how many metres of fabric I need to buy to cut a layer cakes worth of 10” squares
Everything I find is in yards. But I’m in Australia and will buy my fabric by the metre. Surely it’s different from if I’d bought yards?
Thanks for any help
Seren
Alanda Craft says
We’ve created a post to answer your question Seren. You can view it here: https://www.alandacraft.com/2020/05/06/cut-10-layer-cake-squares-from-meterage/
Ellie says
I’m all in metric world as well like the rest of the world. But you can think of a yard like one meter. 1 meter is actually a little more than 1 yard (1 yard = 91+cm to be exact, a little shy (-8-9cm). But when you’re buying a fabric you want a little extra anyways (I buy 10-30cm extra always as I don’t want to run out when I make a mistake cutting for example). So in her chart, half a yard will be 50cm, you can get 4, 10” layer cake size worth of them plus 4 more 8-9” squares or 3 (2.5”) binding tape width wise (usually 110cm), more than 3 m worth. For 1 m, double the quantity of 50cm yields. Hope this helps.
Rhonda says
1 yard is 0.91 meters. So 3 1/2 yards SS is approx 3.2 meters of fabric.
Linda says
Hello Wanda
I have just found your site and I am thrilled! I am a quilter but not always sure of the yardage to buy.
I watched your tutorial on the reversible quilt and your instructions were so clear and easy to follow..
My daughter would like me to make her a quilt but has a very big bed super king, .
Could you advise how much yardage i would need for a super king quilt .
Many thanks
Linda
Alanda Craft says
My apologies Linda but we are unable to provide individual resizing of quilt blocks or adjustments to any of our free patterns/tutorials. We would love to help, but we get so many emails with these types of requests and we just can’t handle them all.
Ellen Carleton says
Really appreciated this tutorial. No option to give it a “like”.
Susan chamberlain says
In your typed portion of this you state that you can get 12 10″ squares from a yard of cloth, but in your tutorial on how to cut the fabric it only yields 8 10″ squares. You need to change your writing message. I used that portion to purchase my fabric and now I don’t have enough fabric and will have to return to the store to get more.
Alanda Craft says
You will get 12 10″ squares from a yard of fabric, Susan. In the tutorial we were only showing the process on how to go about cutting 10″ squares from fabric and the piece that we used measured approx 22″, not a full yard and that is why we got 8 squares. The list in the written instructions is correct.
Leah Van Meter says
I followed the directions with small variation because I’ve had back surgery and have a few motion limitations, but I was able to cut 7 yards of fabric into 10 inch squares! No problem at all! I was so nervous that I was going to screw up but it came out just fine! Thank you very much for the directions!!
Alanda Craft says
You are most welcome Leah 😊. I’m so glad you were able to cut the squares without any problems.