# FabricMeasure > Calculators for curtains, upholstery and cushions that show their working. Every allowance is adjustable and every figure on the page is produced by the same function the calculator runs. Every entry below lists its plain-markdown mirror explicitly, on the line after the tool. Those mirrors publish the full formula, the default allowances and a worked example, so the calculation can be reproduced without running the page. ## Fabric Calculators - [Curtain fabric calculator](https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/curtain-fabric-calculator/): To find how much curtain fabric you need, multiply the track width by the fullness to get the flat width each curtain must cover, divide that by the usable width of your fabric to get a whole number of fabric widths, then multiply that count by the cut length — the finished drop plus a heading allowance plus a hem allowance, rounded up to a whole number of pattern repeats. The calculator below does this for metric or imperial measurements and shows every step, so you can adjust any allowance to match how your curtains are being made. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/curtain-fabric-calculator.md - [Curtain fullness calculator](https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/curtain-fullness-calculator/): Curtain fullness is the ratio between the flat width of fabric in a finished curtain and the width of track it covers, so a 200 cm track at 2× fullness needs 400 cm of flat fabric — 200 cm in each curtain of a pair, before side hems and seams are taken out. Dividing that by the usable width of your fabric and rounding up to a whole width gives the width count; the calculator below does it in metric or imperial, and shows the fullness those whole widths really deliver, which is almost always more than the figure you asked for. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/curtain-fullness-calculator.md - [Pattern repeat calculator](https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/pattern-repeat-calculator/): Matching a patterned fabric means every piece has to start at the same point in the design, so each cut length is rounded up to a whole number of pattern repeats: a 255 cm cut in a fabric with a 64 cm repeat becomes 256 cm, and the surplus is trimmed away. The calculator below works out the matched cut length, the fabric lost from every piece, one extra repeat for placing the first cut, and the total — alongside what the same pieces would take in a plain fabric, which is the true cost of the pattern. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/pattern-repeat-calculator.md - [Fabric yardage calculator](https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/fabric-yardage-calculator/): Fabric requirement follows from how many pieces fit across the roll, not from total area. Add the seam allowance to every edge of one piece, divide the usable roll width by the piece width and round DOWN to a whole number — that is how many fit side by side. Divide the number of pieces you need by that count and round UP for the number of rows, then multiply the rows by the cut length of one piece. The calculator below does this in metric or imperial, matches a pattern repeat where there is one, and shows the strip left unused beside your pieces, which you pay for either way. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/fabric-yardage-calculator.md - [Cushion fabric calculator](https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/cushion-fabric-calculator/): A cushion cover is a front, a back in one piece or two, and often a run of piping — so the fabric it takes depends on how those rectangles pack across your roll rather than on their total area. An envelope back adds two pieces of about 60% of the cover height each, a zip adds one the size of the front, and piping is cut in strips across the width. The calculator below builds that piece list from your cover size, packs it onto the roll and prints the cutting plan, in metric or imperial. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/cushion-fabric-calculator.md - [Upholstery fabric calculator](https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/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. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/upholstery-fabric-calculator.md - [Seam allowance calculator](https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/seam-allowance-calculator/): To find the cut size, add the seam allowance once for every edge that is actually seamed: a 50 cm finished width sewn at 1.5 cm on both side edges is cut at 53 cm, while an edge that is folded or left on the selvedge adds nothing. The reverse matters more and is easier to miss — because the cut size is fixed by the pattern, sewing at a different allowance from the one the pattern assumed changes the FINISHED size instead, by twice the difference on every seamed edge. The calculator below shows both, in metric or imperial. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/seam-allowance-calculator.md - [Curtain lining calculator](https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/curtain-lining-calculator/): Curtain lining is bought separately from the face fabric and calculated differently: it is plain, so no pattern repeat has to be matched, it comes on a narrower roll — 137 cm is the UK standard — and it is cut short of the face fabric so it cannot show below the hem. Because the roll is narrower, a curtain that took two widths of face fabric can need three of lining. The calculator below takes the flat width your curtains need and solves it again on the lining roll, showing every allowance. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/curtain-lining-calculator.md - [Roman blind fabric calculator](https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/roman-blind-fabric-calculator/): A Roman blind is a flat panel, so unlike a curtain it takes no fullness: the cloth across is the finished width plus a side turning at each edge, and a width is only joined when the blind is wider than the roll. Down the roll the cut is the finished drop plus an allowance to wrap the top batten and a hem deep enough to take the bottom bar, rounded up to whole pattern repeats on a patterned fabric. Lining is cut to the same length plus whatever the rod pockets consume. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/roman-blind-fabric-calculator.md - [Curtain heading tape calculator](https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/curtain-heading-tape-calculator/): Heading tape is sewn across the flat width of the finished curtain, so the length needed is the cloth in the made-up curtain — the widths bought, less the side hems and the seams at every join — plus a turnback folded under at each end. Hooks are a different measurement entirely: they sit along the curtain once it is gathered, not along the flat tape, which is why counting them on the tape length buys roughly two and a half times too many. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/curtain-heading-tape-calculator.md - [Tablecloth fabric calculator](https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/tablecloth-fabric-calculator/): A tablecloth is the table plus a drop on every side, hemmed all round — so a 90 by 180 cm table with a 25 cm drop finishes at 140 by 230 cm. What decides the fabric is whether that finished size fits across the roll: if it does not, widths have to be joined, and the seams must never fall down the centre of the cloth. Because nothing about a table has a top or a bottom, a plain fabric can usually be turned to run the other way, which often removes the join entirely. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/tablecloth-fabric-calculator.md - [Bias binding calculator](https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/bias-binding-calculator/): Binding is cut two ways, and the arithmetic differs. Straight-grain strips run across the roll, so the count is the length needed divided by the usable width, and the fabric bought is that many strip widths. Continuous bias seams a square into a tube and cuts round it, producing one unbroken strip: a square of side S yields about S² divided by the strip width, so the square needed is the square root of the length times the width. Only bias will go round a curve. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/calculators/bias-binding-calculator.md ## Fabric Conversions - [Yards to metres](https://fabricmeasure.com/conversions/yards-to-metres/): One yard is exactly 0.9144 metres, so to convert fabric yardage to metres you multiply by 0.9144 — three yards is 2.7432 metres. The figure is exact rather than approximate, because the international yard has been defined as 0.9144 metres since 1959. What is not interchangeable is the fabric itself: a yard of 44-inch quilting cotton and a metre of 140 cm furnishing fabric contain very different amounts of cloth, so converting the length alone will under-buy if the roll widths differ. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/conversions/yards-to-metres.md - [Metres to yards](https://fabricmeasure.com/conversions/metres-to-yards/): One metre is 1.0936133 yards, so to convert metres of fabric to yards you multiply by 1.0936133 — three metres is 3.28 yards. At a cutting counter that figure is not usable directly: US shops cut to the nearest eighth of a yard, so 3.28 yards is bought as 3⅜ yards. The converter below rounds up to eighths or quarters for that reason, and shows the exact decimal alongside, so you can see how much of the extra is rounding rather than fabric you asked for. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/conversions/metres-to-yards.md - [Fabric width converter](https://fabricmeasure.com/conversions/fabric-width-converter/): When a pattern specifies a length at one fabric width and your fabric is a different width, multiply the pattern length by the pattern width and divide by your width: 3 metres of 115 cm fabric becomes 2.3 metres of 150 cm fabric. This is an area equivalence, and it holds only for plain, non-directional fabric whose pattern pieces can be rearranged freely. A one-way design, a nap, or any single piece wider than the narrower roll breaks it — the converter below flags those cases rather than printing a figure you cannot rely on. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/conversions/fabric-width-converter.md - [Fabric GSM calculator](https://fabricmeasure.com/conversions/fabric-gsm-calculator/): Fabric weight converts between g/m² and oz/yd² by a factor of 33.905747 — exactly one ounce, 28.349523125 g, spread over one square yard, 0.83612736 m² — so a 150 g/m² cotton is 4.42 oz/yd². Ounces per RUNNING yard is a different measure that depends on the roll width, and momme is the silk unit at 4.3399 g/m² each. The converter below handles all four, says what weight class a fabric falls into, and works out the weight from a weighed swatch when there is no label. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/conversions/fabric-gsm-calculator.md ## Reference Charts - [Standard curtain sizes](https://fabricmeasure.com/charts/standard-curtain-sizes/): Ready-made curtains in the UK are sold in four drops — 137, 183, 228 and 274 cm, which are the imperial 54, 72, 90 and 108 inches rounded — and in four widths per curtain: 117, 167, 228 and 297 cm. The width on the packet is the width of each curtain flat, not the width of window the pair covers, which is why a “167 cm pair” suits a track of roughly 130 cm and no more. None of these sizes is a standard in any formal sense; they are trade conventions, and the metric label is always a rounded imperial figure. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/charts/standard-curtain-sizes.md - [Fabric width chart](https://fabricmeasure.com/charts/fabric-width-chart/): Fabric rolls are sold in seven widths that cover almost everything on a shop shelf: 90, 112, 115, 137, 140, 150 and 274 cm, which are the imperial 36, 44, 45, 54, 55, 60 and 108 inches. Every metric figure is a rounded conversion rather than a measurement, so a roll sold as 54 inch measures 137.16 cm while one sold as 140 cm really is 140 — a gap of nearly 3 cm between two labels the trade treats as interchangeable. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/charts/fabric-width-chart.md - [Seam allowance chart](https://fabricmeasure.com/charts/seam-allowance-chart/): Seam allowances cluster around seven values: a quarter inch for patchwork, three-eighths for overlocked knits, 1 cm for European patterns and bag making, half an inch for general home sewing, 1.5 cm as the metric dressmaking standard, five-eighths of an inch as the imperial one, and 2 cm for curtains and loose covers. Five-eighths is 15.875 mm rather than 15 mm, so sewing a metric 1.5 cm on an imperial pattern finishes wider on every seam. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/charts/seam-allowance-chart.md - [Fabric weight chart](https://fabricmeasure.com/charts/fabric-weight-chart/): Fabric weight falls into six working bands: under 80 g/m² is sheer, 80–120 is light, 120–200 medium, 200–300 heavy, 300–400 very heavy, and anything above that is upholstery and tarpaulin territory. Four units describe the same property — grams per square metre, ounces per square yard, ounces per running yard and momme — but only the first two describe the cloth alone. The other two depend on how wide the roll is. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/charts/fabric-weight-chart.md - [Curtain heading types](https://fabricmeasure.com/charts/curtain-heading-types/): Curtain headings differ in how they form their folds and in how much cloth that costs. A pencil pleat is drawn up by a corded tape and needs 2× fullness as a floor; an eyelet lets the pole form the folds and works from 1.8×; a tab top is flattest at 1.5×. The heading also fixes the allowance added above the finished drop, from 12 cm for a tab top to 25 cm for an eyelet band — so the style changes both dimensions of every cut, not just the width. Markdown, with the formula: https://fabricmeasure.com/charts/curtain-heading-types.md ## Reference - [Fabric and curtain terms](https://fabricmeasure.com/glossary/): the vocabulary, defined once. Plain text at https://fabricmeasure.com/glossary.md - [Methodology](https://fabricmeasure.com/methodology/): every formula, default allowance and stated assumption. Markdown, with the tables: https://fabricmeasure.com/methodology.md - [About](https://fabricmeasure.com/about/): who maintains this, and what has and has not been checked. - [Terms of use](https://fabricmeasure.com/terms/): the figures are a guide; check your own measurements before cutting.