I’m a big fan of fat quarters. I find them pretty hard to pass up when I see them on sale and I love spending time trying to coordinate them in the store.
Fat quarters make it easy to create small projects (like our fabric gift bag for example ) plus there are loads of patterns available all over the internet now that specifically use fat quarters.
So how may fat quarters are in a yard of fabric?
There are 4 fat quarters in a yard of fabric.
Easy right?…but if you want to know how they get 4 fat quarters out of a yard of fabric, then read on.
What does a fat quarter measure?
Fat quarters generally measure 18” x 22”.
I say ‘generally’ because you will often find them in varying measurements depending on the manufacturer and the initial fabric width.
The width of most quilting fabrics measures 44” but you will often find others that are 42” or 43” or something else entirely. This will ultimately affect the final size of the fat quarter.
We’ve found fat quarters in all sorts of sizes over the years.
How do you get 4 fat quarters out of a yard of fabric?
To get four fat quarters from a yard, take the following steps:
- Cut down the middle of the fabric to create two half-yard pieces.
- Take each piece and open it up.
- Cut along the fold line of each piece.
Now you have four fat quarters.
Just be aware however that not all quilting fabric is folded accurately. It may not meet perfectly at the selvage. So cutting along that fold line may mean that you might get one fat quarter that is larger than the other.
If the fold line is not accurate than you can either manually fold the fabric so that the selvage ends meet and then iron a new fold line OR you can just measure 22” from the selvage end and cut. This assumes that you have a piece of fabric measuring 44″ of course.
But if all that sounds confusing, then just scroll down and click the link to our tutorial on how to cut your own fat quarters.
Learn How to Cut Your Own Fat Quarters
We have cut our own fat quarters in the past and it’s actually quite easy to do.
You may need to do this if there is a pattern that uses fat quarters and you just can’t find the fabric you are after in your local store’s collection of fat quarters.
You might also want to cut your own if you want to sell them. People are usually willing to pay more for fat quarters so if you were to buy a bolt of fabric, you could potentially make a good profit by cutting it all down into fat quarters.
If you do want to cut your own, we’ve created a tutorial on how to do just that.
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