Upholstery fabric calculator

Re-upholstery fabric is normally quoted as a rule of thumb — a three-seat sofa takes fourteen metres — which is useful shorthand and impossible to check. This calculator treats the job as what it is instead: a list of named panels with dimensions, packed onto your roll in rows. Choose a furniture type for a starting list of typical sizes, edit any panel to what you actually measured, and it returns the length to buy, the cutting plan row by row, and which panels are too wide for the roll and will need seaming.

Your furniture and your fabric

Units

MetricImperial

What are you coveringDining chair seatFootstool or ottomanArmchairTwo-seat sofaThree-seat sofaA fireside armchair with one boxed seat cushion. Inside pieces include a tuck-in at the deck.

Fabric width

cm

The roll width, as sold

Pattern repeat

cm

0 for a plain fabric

Cutting marginNone10% — trade practice15% — patterned or trickyFor cutting error and matching drift

Typical dimensions for a armchair, finished size before seam allowances. Measure your own and edit any of them.

Piece	Width	Length	How many
Inside back	Inside back width cm	Inside back length cm	Inside back quantityNot needed12345678
Outside back	Outside back width cm	Outside back length cm	Outside back quantityNot needed12345678
Seat deck	Seat deck width cm	Seat deck length cm	Seat deck quantityNot needed12345678
Inside arm	Inside arm width cm	Inside arm length cm	Inside arm quantityNot needed12345678
Outside arm	Outside arm width cm	Outside arm length cm	Outside arm quantityNot needed12345678
Arm facing	Arm facing width cm	Arm facing length cm	Arm facing quantityNot needed12345678
Cushion face	Cushion face width cm	Cushion face length cm	Cushion face quantityNot needed12345678
Cushion gusset	Cushion gusset width cm	Cushion gusset length cm	Cushion gusset quantityNot needed12345678
Extra piece 1	Extra piece 1 width cm	Extra piece 1 length cm	Extra piece 1 quantityNot needed12345678
Extra piece 2	Extra piece 2 width cm	Extra piece 2 length cm	Extra piece 2 quantityNot needed12345678

Seams, selvedge and how the cloth runs

Seam allowance

cm

Added to every edge of every piece

Width you cannot cut into

cm

Selvedge, or a flawed edge

Can this fabric be railroaded?

NoYes

Run sideways, so the roll width becomes the panel height

Does the fabric have a direction?

NoYes

Your shop cuts toNearest 10 cmNearest half metreWhole metresNearest ⅛ yardNearest ¼ yardExact requirementMost UK and European shops cut roll goods to the nearest 10 cm.

Buy this much fabric

4.9 m

5⅜ yd · the cutting plan needs 4.84 m

Pieces to cut

138 kinds of piece

Rows in the cutting plan

74.4 m before margin

Cutting margin

10%44 cm

Cloth that ends up on the furniture

84%of the area you pay for

The cutting plan, row by row

Pieces are cut in rows across 140 cm of usable width. Each row costs the length of the longest piece in it.

Row	Pieces across	Width used	Row length
1	Cushion gusset	133 cm7 cm spare	15 cm
2	Cushion gusset	133 cm7 cm spare	15 cm
3	Inside backInside arm	136 cm4 cm spare	98 cm
4	Seat deckInside arm	136 cm4 cm spare	98 cm
5	Outside backOutside arm	136 cm4 cm spare	83 cm
6	2 × cushion face	136 cm4 cm spare	68 cm
7	Outside arm2 × arm facing	119 cm21 cm spare	63 cm

These are typical dimensions for an armchair, not yours

The piece table above is a starting point, and it is the only part of this calculation that is a guess. Measure the piece you are covering, edit the rows, and the answer stops being an estimate.

Piping, skirts, arm caps and buttoning are not in the preset

A trade quote usually includes them, which is why it comes out higher. Add a row for each — a skirt is a long strip, an arm cap is a small panel — or allow for them in the cutting margin.

The plan keeps every piece upright

Nothing is being railroaded, so a panel wider than the roll is seamed instead. If your cloth is plain and sold as railroadable, say so above and compare the two answers.

How we got this

1. Pieces for a armchair — 5.21 m² of cover1 × 70 cm × 95 cm inside back, 1 × 70 cm × 80 cm outside back, 1 × 70 cm × 95 cm seat deck, 2 × 60 cm × 95 cm inside arm, 2 × 60 cm × 60 cm outside arm, 2 × 25 cm × 60 cm arm facing, 2 × 65 cm × 65 cm cushion face, 2 × 130 cm × 12 cm cushion gusset
2. Pieces to cut — 13 pieces1 × inside back, 1 × outside back, 1 × seat deck, 2 × inside arm, 2 × outside arm, 2 × arm facing, 2 × cushion face, 2 × cushion gusset, each grown by 3 cm for seams
3. Rows in the cutting plan — 7 rowspieces laid across 140 cm of usable width, widest first
4. Fabric for the rows — 440 cm15 cm + 15 cm + 98 cm + 98 cm + 83 cm + 68 cm + 63 cm
5. Cutting margin — 44 cm10% of 440 cm
6. Total fabric required — 484 cmrows + margin
7. Buy, rounded up (nearest 10 cm) — 490 cm484 cm rounded up to the next 0.1 m

ResetReport a wrong result

Buy4.9 m

What a rule of thumb hides

Ask any upholsterer how much fabric a three-seater takes and you will get a number, usually somewhere between twelve and sixteen metres. The number is genuinely useful — it is drawn from hundreds of jobs — and there is no way to check it against your own sofa, because it does not say which sofa it is describing.

A quote of that kind silently assumes a width of cloth, a pattern to match or none, a skirt or none, boxed cushions or a fixed seat. Change any one and the figure moves by metres. That is fine when an upholsterer is quoting for work they will do themselves and can adjust; it is not fine when you are the one buying the cloth.

So this calculator asks a different question. A piece of furniture is a set of named panels with dimensions. Give it the panels and it packs them onto your roll, in rows, and shows the plan. The only estimate left is the panel sizes — and you can replace those with measurements.

A worked example

An armchair on 140 cm plain cloth, using the preset panel list, 1.5 cm seams and a 10% cutting margin.

13 pieces from 8 kinds of panel, packed into 7 rows: 4.4 m of cutting plus 44 cm of margin, bought as 4.9 m. 84% of the cloth ends up on the chair, which is unusually good — an armchair's panels happen to pair up neatly across a 140 cm roll.

Every preset, plain and patterned

The five starting lists, each run through the same packing on a 140 cm roll. The patterned column uses a 64 cm repeat, which is typical of a large furnishing print and is where the difference between a plain cloth and a patterned one becomes impossible to ignore.

The plain figures sit below what a trade table would quote, and deliberately so: they cover panels and cushions and nothing else. Add piping round every cushion, a skirt along three sides, arm caps, or a deep buttoned back and you are into the range those tables describe. The patterned column, meanwhile, shows why an upholsterer asks about the repeat before quoting at all.

The presets are the only guess here

Each list is typical rather than measured — a fireside armchair, a two-seater of ordinary proportions. They exist so the table starts with something in it, and every row is editable. Overwrite them with your own measurements and nothing unverified is left in the answer.

• Dining chair seat. A drop-in or screwed-on seat pad, with enough to wrap under and staple.
• Footstool or ottoman. A square stool with a fixed top and four side panels.
• Armchair. A fireside armchair with one boxed seat cushion. Inside pieces include a tuck-in at the deck.
• Two-seat sofa. A two-seater with two boxed seat cushions and tuck-ins at the deck.
• Three-seat sofa. A three-seater with three boxed seat cushions and tuck-ins at the deck.

Two things to know when you measure. Panels are cut to the widest point of the shape, over any curve rather than across it, because cloth cannot be added back at a corner. And the inside panels — back, deck, inside arms — need a tuck-in of 10–15 cm that disappears into the frame and is what holds the cover taut. The presets include it; a tape measure laid over the outside of a chair does not.

Wide panels, seams and railroading

Railroading is defined in the glossary; what follows is when it is worth doing and what it costs you if the cloth is not sold for it.

The back of a sofa is wider than any normal roll of cloth, so something has to give. There are three answers and the calculator will tell you which one it has taken.

Seam it. A panel wider than the roll is cut in parts and joined, and a centre seam down a back or a deck is ordinary practice — often invisible under a cushion. The plan says how many parts and how wide each will be, so you can decide where the join falls.

Railroad it. Turn the cloth sideways and the roll width becomes the height of the panel, so a 190 cm back comes out of a 140 cm roll in one piece. It usually saves fabric as well as seams. But most upholstery cloth is woven with the strong direction running down the roll, so railroading trades wear for convenience — do it only with a fabric sold as railroadable, which is why the option is off until you say otherwise.

Buy wider cloth. Upholstery weights are commonly offered at 137 and 150 cm, and occasionally 300 cm for exactly this reason. The extra 13 cm sometimes takes a panel that would otherwise need joining.

How to measure

1. Measure the widest point of each panel. A cover panel is cut to the widest and longest the shape gets, because you cannot add cloth back at the corner. Measure over the curve, not across it.
2. Add the tuck-in where the cover disappears. Inside backs, decks and inside arms carry 10–15 cm extra that is pushed into the frame and held there. The presets include it; your own measurements must too.
3. Count the cushions and their gussets. A boxed cushion is two faces and a band round the edge. The band is a long strip the depth of the cushion, and it is easy to forget.
4. Take the roll width from the label. Upholstery weights are commonly 137–150 cm. The panels that will not fit across it are the ones that decide the whole layout.
5. Add a cutting margin. Ten per cent is trade practice, fifteen if the fabric is patterned or the shape is awkward. It is not padding — it is what makes the job finishable.

What this does not model

• Shaped and curved pieces are treated as the rectangle that encloses them, which is what a cutting list does anyway — but a scroll arm or a wing wastes more inside that rectangle than a flat panel does.
• Matching a design across panels. Rows are rounded up to whole repeats, which lines pieces up down the roll. Running a motif continuously from the inside back over the deck, or centring one on each cushion, costs more and is worked out on the actual roll.
• Piping, skirts, arm caps and buttoning. Add a row for each in the table — a skirt is a long strip, an arm cap a small panel — or cover them with a larger margin.
• Whether the frame is worth it. Fabric is usually the smaller half of a re-upholstery bill. A calculator that tells you a sofa needs eleven metres has not told you whether re-covering it beats replacing it.

Doing cushion covers to match? The cushion fabric calculator handles covers, backs and piping, and the fabric yardage calculator covers plain rectangles of any kind.

Common questions

How much fabric does a three-seat sofa take?

On a 140 cm plain cloth, the panel list here comes to roughly 11–12 m for a three-seater with three boxed cushions, before piping or a skirt. Trade tables quote 12–16 m because they include the trimmings and assume a pattern to match — the calculator shows you which of the two situations you are in.

Are the preset dimensions measurements of my furniture?

No, and they are the only guess in the calculation. They are typical sizes for common furniture, offered so the table is not empty. Every row is editable, and once you have measured your own piece the arithmetic over those rectangles is exact.

Why does it want to seam the back of a sofa?

Because a 190 cm back panel will not come out of a 140 cm roll in one piece. A centre seam is ordinary upholstery practice, and the calculator says how many parts and how wide each will be. The alternative is railroading the cloth or buying a wider one.

What is railroading, and should I do it?

Running the fabric sideways, so the roll width becomes the height of the panel instead of its width. It removes the seams from a wide back and often saves cloth, but it only suits fabric sold as railroadable — most upholstery cloth is woven with the strong direction down the roll, and turning it costs wear.

Why add a cutting margin?

Because a cover is cut, fitted over a frame, and sometimes cut again, and cloth stretched over a curve rarely lands where the tape said. Upholsterers allow 10–15%; the calculator defaults to 10% and lets you change it.

Related tools

Cushion fabric calculator

Cover size, back opening and piping in; the length to buy and a row-by-row cutting plan out.

Fabric yardage calculator

Piece size, how many, roll width — the length to buy, and the strip you pay for but never cut.

Fabric weight chart

Weight bands in g/m² and oz/yd², and what each band is actually used for.

Pattern repeat calculator

The cut length a repeat forces, what is trimmed from every piece, and what matching the design costs.

Updated 20 August 2026 · Method v1 · Written and maintained by Wickeey · Tell me if a result looks wrong