Shirt Making: How Much Fabric Do I Need?

by Anton Noordink | Oct 19, 2020

It’s great fun to make a shirt for yourself (or someone else). A shirt is easy to combine and can be worn both casual and dressed. There are endless possibilities in the choice of fabric. Beautiful cotton in solid colours, or stripes and other patterns. Nowadays there are also many options when it comes to sustainable fabrics. Interesting if you want to make a shirt that is good for people and the environment.

How much fabric do I need?

And once you have found the right fabric, the question is always: how much fabric do I need for a shirt? Of course you don’t want to buy too much, but certainly not too little.

The most important thing is to look closely at the width of the fabric, in combination with the width of the shirt. Usually you can cut the front and back together from the width of the fabric. In that case you will have enough fabric if you add the length of the body + the length of the sleeves, plus something extra (for the small parts).

However, if you have a fabric that is less than 150 cm wide, you will need a little more fabric. In that case you will need twice the length of the body and once the length of the sleeves. You then have enough space to take out the small parts. The above is also recommended if your fit has a larger chest width than 130 cm.

Stripes, checks and patterns

If you are dealing with a stripe, chek or pattern, then in general you need a little more fabric. Because you want some pattern parts to run smoothly, you cannot just randomly put them on the fabric. Processing these types of fabrics is also a bit more difficult, and it is more likely that you will make a mistake. The larger the stripe, check or pattern, the more extra fabric you will need.

You don’t need that many extras with a narrow longitudinal stripe. This is because there are no points in the length that the line can continue, apart from the split parts.

Below is an overview of the sustainable shirt fabrics that we have developed. You can order most of our fabrics per 10 cm, so if you measure your pattern carefully you can buy exactly what you need.