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How Many Quilting Squares Can You Get from a Yard of Fabric

Alanda Craft March 22, 2020 9 Comments This post may contain affiliate links.

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If you are a quilter, then you’ve probably cut hundreds if not thousands of squares of fabric over time. It’s just one of the joys of quilting….cutting, cutting, more cutting and cutting again. Still, we shouldn’t complain since these days we have the privilege of rotary cutters, quilting rulers and cutting mats to make the whole process a lot easier.

Even so, knowing how many of those little suckers we need to cut and the amount of fabric we will need oftentimes requires a bit of math. And I don’t know about you but I try to avoid those calculations as much as possible.

So to make things easier for both you and me, I’ve created a table that shows the number of squares you will get from a yard of fabric based on the useable width of fabric (WOF). In other words, the WOF you will get after you trim off the selvages.

If you are new to quilting and don’t know what WOF is, then scroll down to below the table for clarification.

Number of Squares Per Yard of Fabric

The table below displays the number of squares you will get from one yard of fabric based on the width of your fabric.

For example, if your width of fabric (WOF) is 40" (after trimming off the selvages) and you want to cut 5" squares, the number of squares you will get is 56.
Square39"40"41"42"
.5"5616576059046048
1'1404144014761512
1.5"624624648672
2"342360360378
2.5"210224224224
3"156156156168
3.5"110110110120
4"81909090
4.5"64647272
5"49565656
5.5"42424242
6"36363642
6.5"30303030
7"25252530
7.5"20202020
8"16202020
8.5"16161616
9"16161616
9.5"12121212
10"9121212
10.5"99912
11"9999
11.5"9999
12"9999
12.5"6666
13"6666
13.5"446
14"4446
14.5"4444
15"4444
15.5"4444
16"4444
16.5"4444
17"4444
17.5"4444
18"4444
18.5"2222
19"2222
19.5"2222
20"1222
20.5"1122

What is WOF?

Most quilting fabric comes on a bolt and it is folded before wrapping around that bolt.

bolt of fabric

When you buy a yard of fabric off the bolt, the salesperson will unroll the fabric from the bolt and measure 36″ or so across the length of the fabric and cut. (Usually, they will give you slightly more than 36″ because the fabric is not always straight and once you straighten it, you will lose some of the fabric.)

Now the fabric, at this point, is still folded and it is folded from selvage to selvage. The selvages are those edges of the fabric that are placed there by the manufacturer to prevent the fabric from fraying.

bolt of fabric

If you were to unfold the fabric and measure from one selvage edge to the other selvage edge you get the ‘width of fabric’ (WOF).

what is width of fabric (WOF)

Most quilting fabric measures about 44″ from selvage to selvage. However, if you’ve been quilting for a while, you’ll know this isn’t always the case – you might have quilting fabric that measures 42” or 43” or something else yet again.

Either way, you pretty much will never get the full use of the fabric since you will need to cut off the selvage edges and straighten up the fabric.

Once you have done that your WOF may now only measure 40″ or 42″ or something else completely.

This is why, in the table above, we have created 4 columns with different WOF measurements – 39″, 40″, 41″ and 42″.

Related Articles

  • How to Cut Layer Cake Squares from Your Yardage
  • How to Cut Charm Squares from Your Yardage
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Filed Under: Quilting Tutorials

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Cyd says

    April 19, 2020 at 1:37 am

    Thanks for your easy to understand cutting instructions for charm squares. You make it so easy to do this.

    Reply
    • Alanda Craft says

      April 19, 2020 at 9:17 am

      Thank you for the lovely feedback. So glad we could help.

      Reply
  2. Sheryl Lawrence says

    May 19, 2020 at 12:09 pm

    Looking to make a simple beginner baby quilt. Do you have any such patterns?

    Reply
    • Alanda Craft says

      May 20, 2020 at 8:56 am

      We have a couple that are super easy:
      1. Beginner Quilt – https://www.alandacraft.com/2015/06/08/quilting-for-beginners-the-easiest-quilt-ever/
      2. Layer Cake Quilt – https://www.alandacraft.com/2018/03/02/quick-quilt-1-layer-cake-baby-quilt-tutorial/

      Reply
  3. R says

    December 11, 2020 at 4:19 pm

    Using the above numbers I figured out how many strips I could get from a yard of fabric.
    For example: if your (WOF is 42″) and you want to cut 1.5″ strips, 7″ long, the number of strips you will get is 134.

    for strips: Divide by smallest inch square number total by a multiplier
    Example: 1.5″ strip by 7″ Long, then 7 /(divide by) 1.5 = 5 (multiplier)
    1.5″ square = 672 (WOF 42″) / (divide by multiplier (of 5) [ if 7″ Length, then 1.5″ X (times) 4.66 (round Up to 5) = 7″]) = 134 round down
    134 is the number of strips (1.5″ wide X 7″ length) I can get from a yard of fabric.

    Reply
    • Alanda Craft says

      December 12, 2020 at 10:22 am

      Thank you for providing that helpful information to our readers. I know everyone will certainly appreciate it.

      Reply
  4. Aretha Bowman says

    May 19, 2021 at 3:46 am

    I definitely appreciation that calculation method and I wrote it down in my notes for future reference.. I also printed the chart showing the number of squares per yard of material. Thanks again

    Reply
  5. Preethi Ravi says

    October 2, 2021 at 3:46 am

    Hi. How did you get 672? Sorry confused.

    Reply
    • Alanda Craft says

      October 2, 2021 at 9:53 am

      This is the calculation – (42” ÷ 1.5”) + (36” ÷ 1.5”) = 672 squares

      Reply

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Welcome to Alanda Craft - We are Wanda & Paula, two friends who love to craft. Our goal is to show you techniques on how to improve your crafting skills. Learn how to use your ScanNCut, your Dream Machine, make quilts and create quick and easy sewing projects! Learn, Create, Enjoy!

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