Saturday 21 September 2013

how do I calculate fabric

Today my friendly bloggers I am hoping you will help me out in how I calculate how much fabric I need to finish the tula pink quilt.  I want to put borders on each block I think in black and then cut them on a slant,  here is a picture of what I am trying to do just using a bit of poly cotton for the trial piece.


The green piece is cut 8"  and the pink 7",  sorry the pink looks bigger must have had the camera closer as it is smaller really,   I used a 2 wide strip on each block,  think I need to do them 8" as if I use the smaller one there might be very little border or no border at all depending on how I cut them,   or maybe I need to make them larger,   advice please.

I do not think I will get them all cut at the same angle,  well I know I will not be good enough to do that but wonder what they will look like if not all the same?

I have tried to calculate how much fabric I will need    200 strips 6.5" and 200 9.5" if I make them finished to cut down to 8"square  so they will end up 7.5 when put together,  am I doing okay with this calculation so far?
Maybe I need to make them a little bigger but that will make the quilt so much bigger, this way it will measure 75" square plus a border and binding.  Oh yes need to add the border which will be in the black too,  not sure how wide to do that but that will need 2 strips 75" long and 2 well depends on how wide the strips are. maybe 3" so that would be 2 strips 81" by 3" or do these need to be a bit wider?  Then I need fabric for the binding, think this will be done in the black too not sure how much I need of that,  but sure you will all help me there. Well now to work out how much fabric I need, not sure how I go about this so the ball is now in your court   please help me!!

I trust this is understandable and please help if you can, hope to go to York on tuesday to get the fabric, there is a man on the market there who sells a good quality plain fabric which is better than my local supplier or do I need to buy kona fabric, that seems to be very popular and think I can get it on line,   price permitting of course. Think I am going to be in for a bit of a shock with cost.

17 comments:

deanna7trees said...

i used to have a software program "Electric Quilt" that would do a good job of calculating how much fabric i needed once i designed my pattern. that was when i did traditional quilts. haven't used that program in years. hope someone out there can help you or you might find help at your local quilt shop.

cottonreel said...

Hi Margaret, put Fabric Guild U K in the Google bar . It should come up . They do mail order . The fabric is good and so cheap .If you could get someone to share a car and petrol it would be well worth the cost but look at in on the net first
free tea, coffee , hot chocolate from the machine , and free biscuits.
Bluebell just had a small border of flowers under her front window .I helped myself while waiting for her .
Think you will have to get the calculator out for estimating fabric .

Pippas quilts said...

Not sure how you can measure how much fabric to use. I would be careful how much black you use. It sound like an awful lot.

Nana said...

I am sorry, but I can´t help. With quilting questions yes, but not sewing and calculating.

Nana

Queeniepatch said...

I am afraid I am not good at calculating the amount of fabric needed, either. One thing you need to know is how wide is the fabric you are planning to buy? Before you know that you can not figure out how much you will need, right?
On the picture with the pink sashing, the strips are very narrow at the pointed end; will there be enough fabric for seam allowance?
Good luck!

Createology said...

I am no help with calculating fabric for quilting. I would think a good quilting shop or fabric shop should be able to do this for you. I hope you get help and are able to complete your blocks. Stitching Bliss...

Margo Brooks said...

I looked in my quilting bible, but it only shows how to calculate amount of fabric for the backing, but in another book, I found something that may make your life a little easier. It showed tilted pinwheel blocks. It recommended sewing your borders on the blocks and then using a template of your finished block size to place over you block at an angle before cutting it to final size. In this case the blocks were square

Margo Brooks said...

Whoops! The square blocks were easy because as long as you tilted the pattern to to ugh the edge of the boarder, you would get similar tilts one way or the other. Is that what you did with your blocks? It might waste a little fabric, but save your sanity! I think fabric is a lot less expensive here in the states. It may be something to think about --touching the side border seam allowance with your block or coming close to it--because it will distract from the seam going through the middle of your slashing.

Wanda said...

Pięknie szyjesz ! Pozdrawiam :)

CJ STITCHING AND BLOOMS said...

Hello Margaret, I am sorry I can help you in calculating fabric.. I have no clue how to do it but I absolutely love your block. Hugs Judy

Annet said...

First you need to know how many strips you can cut from the wide of the fabric. Then you can multiply it. I f you get say 5 strips from the wide and you need 35 strips. You just need 35 divided by 5, so 7 times the wide of the strips. Hope this makes sence. Of course you can always play safe and use a few different black fabrics. That way you can always buy another black fabric if you didn't calculate right or change plans. I hope this helps.

Isabelle said...

I would like to help you, but my english is not good enought to understand all these technical explanations. sorry !

crafty cat corner said...

That looks a bit complicated to me. No good asking me for anything to do with measuring, I am one of those hit and miss people. lol
Briony
x

cottonreel said...

Bluebell and her husband travelled to Leeds last night to be at a Rod Stewart concert

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