Fabric Consumption Calculator
How many kilos of knit fabric a t-shirt, polo, sweatshirt, hoodie or pair of joggers needs, per garment, per dozen and for your whole order. Centimetres or inches, with a free Excel version. No sign-up.
| Piece | Cut size, cm | Area, cm² |
|---|---|---|
| Front + back | 2 × 74.5 × 54.0 | 8,046 |
| Sleeves | 2 × 24.5 × 42.0 | 2,058 |
| Neck rib (folded) | 1 × 48.0 × 6.0 | 288 |
| Cut pieces, one garment | 1.039 m² | 10,392 |
A planning estimate from cut rectangles, not a CAD marker: your factory’s marker sets the real figure. Every default is typical, not yours. Fabric cost uses your own price; we publish none.
How knit fabric consumption is calculated
Before a pattern exists, a cutting room estimates fabric from the garment’s own measurements. Each pattern piece is treated as the rectangle it is cut from: its finished length plus seam and hem allowances, by its finished width plus allowances. The rectangle already contains the curves of the neckline, armhole and sleeve cap, so it is a little more than the net pattern area.
Add the rectangles, convert to square metres, and multiply by the fabric weight: area in m² × GSM ÷ 1,000 = kg per garment. Then multiply by one plus the cutting wastage, and by one plus shrinkage or process loss if they apply. Rib for necks, cuffs and waistbands is worked out the same way at its own weight, and kept apart, because it is knitted and bought separately from the body fabric.
- Front and back: 2 × (body length + hem + seam) × (half chest + 2 seams). With a rib waistband, the rib height comes off the length and a seam goes on.
- Sleeves: 2 × (sleeve length + hem + seam) × (2 × half bicep + 2 seams). The bicep, not the opening, is the widest point, so it sets the cut width. For a tank top or vest, set the sleeve length to 0 and no sleeves or cuffs are counted.
- Hood: 2 side panels of (height + 2 seams) × (width + 2 seams), or 4 when the hood is lined.
- Joggers: 2 legs, each the outseam less waistband and cuff, by the full thigh (2 × half thigh) plus four seam edges, as the front and back pieces of one leg sit side by side.
- Folded rib: (length all the way round + 2 seams) × (2 × finished height + 2 seams), because it is cut double and folded.
Worked example: a size-M t-shirt
The calculator’s starting values are a typical medium tee in 180 GSM single jersey: 71 cm body length, 52 cm half chest, 21 cm sleeve, 20 cm half bicep, 1 cm seams, 2.5 cm hems and a 2 cm neck rib in 220 GSM rib, with 10% wastage. Every one of those is a typical value, not a rule; they are there to be typed over.
| Piece | Cut rectangle | Area |
|---|---|---|
| Front + back | 2 × 74.5 × 54.0 cm | 8,046 cm² |
| Sleeves | 2 × 24.5 × 42.0 cm | 2,058 cm² |
| Neck rib (folded) | 1 × 48.0 × 6.0 cm | 288 cm² |
- Body fabric: 10,104 cm² = 1.0104 m² × 180 ÷ 1,000 = 181.9 g
- Add 10% wastage: 200.1 g of jersey
- Neck rib: 0.0288 m² × 220 ÷ 1,000 × 1.10 = 7.0 g
- Total: 0.207 kg per tee, 2.48 kg per dozen, 31.1 kg for 150 pieces
Our guide to how much fabric a t-shirt takes uses the classic one-line formula for the same tee: (71 + 21 + 12) × (52 + 12) × 2 × 180 ÷ 10,000 = 240 g before wastage. It comes out higher because it treats each sleeve as wide as the body and adds a generous 12 cm allowance in both directions. Both are honest planning estimates; the gap between them is the reason to write down which method and which allowances a figure assumes.
Typical starting points by garment
What the calculator returns for each garment on its typical size-M values, before you change anything. They are a sense of scale for planning, not a quote and not your garment.
| Garment | Body fabric | Per garment | Per dozen | 150 pieces |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T-shirt | 180 GSM single jersey | 0.207 kg | 2.48 kg | 31.1 kg |
| Long-sleeve tee | 180 GSM single jersey | 0.275 kg | 3.30 kg | 41.3 kg |
| Polo | 200 GSM piqué | 0.235 kg | 2.83 kg | 35.3 kg |
| Sweatshirt | 300 GSM French terry or fleece | 0.538 kg | 6.46 kg | 80.7 kg |
| Hoodie | 320 GSM fleece or French terry | 0.684 kg | 8.21 kg | 102.6 kg |
| Joggers | 300 GSM French terry or fleece | 0.549 kg | 6.59 kg | 82.4 kg |
Why wastage and shrinkage matter
The cut pieces are never the whole story. Some cloth always falls between pieces and at the ends of each lay, and some is lost to faults and shade differences cut around or recut. That is the wastage percentage, and it is an assumption until a marker exists. On a hoodie at 0.68 kg, each extra point of wastage is about 6 g per garment and 0.9 kg on 150 pieces, which is why the tool shows it as its own block in the bar.
Shrinkage is different. If the fabric will shrink after cutting, the pattern has to be cut bigger so the garment ends at its size, and that bigger pattern uses more cloth. Fabric that has been compacted and pre-shrunk at the mill needs little or nothing here, which is why the field starts at zero. If you buy yarn or grey fabric and have it dyed, the mill also loses weight in dyeing and finishing; enter the process loss it quotes in its own field rather than inflating the wastage.
Marker efficiency, and why factories use CAD markers for bulk
A marker is the layout of every pattern piece, in every size of the order, nested across the fabric width before cutting. Its efficiency is the share of the cloth that ends up inside a pattern piece. Simple knit shapes typically nest in the high seventies to high eighties per cent; awkward curves, big hoods, one-way prints and stripes that must match all pull it down.
For bulk, the pattern is graded across sizes and the marker is made in CAD software at the real fabric width for your actual size ratio. That marker, not a formula, is what the fabric is booked against. This calculator does not replace it and does not claim CAD accuracy. What it gives you is a sound estimate before the pattern exists: enough to budget the fabric, compare two weights, or see whether the fabric line in a quote is in the right range. Our guide to reading a garment quote shows where that line sits.
Knit or woven: why this tool works in kilos
Knit fabric, the jersey, piqué, rib, French terry and fleece that tees, polos and sweats are made from, is knitted, dyed and sold by weight, so its consumption is worked out in kilos and its weight is quoted in GSM. A metre of knit can hold a different amount of cloth from the next, because knits stretch, relax and change width in finishing; weight does not. Woven fabric, such as denim, twill or poplin, holds its length and width and is normally sold by the metre or the yard at a stated width, so woven consumption is worked out as a length from a marker. This calculator is for knits. It still gives linear metres or yards, for ordering and for checking a mill’s roll count, once you enter the fabric width. If your supplier quotes ounces, the GSM converter turns ounces into GSM, and the fabric and GSM guide covers which knit suits which garment.
How fabric per dye lot relates to the 150-piece minimum
Fabric is dyed in batches, and each colour is its own lot. The calculator’s order total is, in effect, the size of the dye lot your colourway asks for: on the typical values, 150 tees need about 31 kg and 150 hoodies about 103 kg. Add a second colour and you add a second lot, not a share of the first. That is why our minimum is 150 pieces per style and per colour, and why spreading a small budget across many colours costs more than one colour deep. Our guide to dye lots explains why two lots never match exactly, and the MOQ calculator multiplies a minimum across your styles and colours.
The free Excel version
Download the fabric consumption calculator for Excel. It has one sheet per garment with the same formulas in the cells, filled in with the size-M example above. Type over the shaded inputs and everything recalculates: kilos per garment, per dozen and per order, body and rib apart, linear metres at your fabric width and, if you add a price per kilo, the fabric cost. No sign-up, no macros, and it opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers and LibreOffice. For the rest of the garment specification, the tech pack template is the same kind of free download.
What the tool leaves out
It works one size at a time, so enter your middle size, or run your smallest and largest and take a weighted average for your size ratio. It does not cost trims, thread, labels or flat-knit collars bought by the piece, and it publishes no fabric prices: the cost line uses your own price per kilo, in any currency. To turn a fabric cost into a unit price and a margin, take it to the pricing calculator; our guide to what it costs to manufacture clothing shows every other line in the price.
Frequently asked questions
How much fabric does a t-shirt need?
A medium adult t-shirt in 180 GSM single jersey needs roughly 0.2 kg of fabric, about 1.1 square metres, once a typical 10% cutting wastage is added. Worked through with this calculator: a 71 cm body, 52 cm half chest, 21 cm sleeve and 20 cm half bicep give cut pieces of about 1.01 square metres, which weigh 182 grams at 180 GSM. With 10% wastage and a 2 cm neck rib the total is about 207 grams, or 2.5 kg per dozen. Fabric weight moves the number most: the same tee in 220 GSM jersey needs about a fifth more. Size moves it next, so a run weighted towards XL uses more cloth than one weighted towards S. Treat any figure as a planning range until your factory has made a marker from the real pattern, because that marker, not a formula, sets what is bought.
How do I calculate fabric consumption for a hoodie?
Work out each pattern piece as a rectangle and add them up. Front and back are the body length, less the waistband rib, plus seam allowances, by the half chest plus seams, twice. Each sleeve is its length less the cuff, by twice the half bicep, plus seams. The hood is two side panels, or four if it is lined, and the pouch pocket is one more piece. Multiply the total square metres by the fabric GSM and divide by 1,000 for kilos, then add cutting wastage. The cuffs and waistband are rib, bought separately, so calculate them at the rib's own weight. For a typical size-M hoodie in 320 GSM fleece, that comes to about 0.61 kg of body fabric and 0.07 kg of rib with 12% wastage, roughly 0.68 kg in all. A lined hood adds about 0.08 kg more. The calculator does all of this from your measurements.
What wastage percentage should I use?
For planning, 10 to 12% is a common starting figure for simple knit tops and bottoms, and it is what this calculator prefills, labelled as an assumption. Wastage is the cloth that ends up outside the pattern pieces: the gaps a marker cannot fill, the ends of each lay, and pieces cut again because of a fault or a shade difference. It goes up for awkward shapes, large hoods and pockets, striped or directional fabric that must be matched, and small orders where each lay holds fewer garments. It goes down for simple shapes cut in long lays at a well-chosen fabric width. Because the calculator works from rectangles that already include the space around necklines and armholes, a moderate figure is enough, so do not stack a large wastage on top. When your factory makes the marker, ask for its efficiency and replace the assumption with that.
Why is knit fabric bought by the kilo?
Because that is how it is made and sold. Knitting turns yarn, which is bought by weight, into fabric, and dyeing and finishing are charged by weight too, so the whole chain prices in kilos. Length is a poor unit for knits: jersey and fleece stretch, relax and change width through finishing, so a metre of one roll can hold a different amount of cloth from a metre of the next. Weight does not move like that. It is why a knit factory talks about consumption in kilos per dozen, and why fabric weight in GSM matters so much for cost: move a tee from 160 to 200 GSM and the fabric line rises by a quarter without changing a seam. Woven fabric, which is stable in length and width, is normally sold by the metre or the yard, so woven consumption is worked out as a length instead, from a marker at the cloth's width.
How do I convert kilos of knit fabric to metres or yards?
Divide the area by the usable width. One kilo of 180 GSM fabric covers 1,000 ÷ 180 = 5.56 square metres; at 180 cm open width that is 5.56 ÷ 1.8 = 3.09 linear metres, or 3.38 yards. Tubular fabric comes off the knitting machine as a tube and is measured flat, as two layers, so a metre of tube with a 90 cm flat width holds 1.8 square metres, the same as a metre of 180 cm open-width fabric. The calculator does this for the whole order when you enter a width and choose open or tubular. Width is the figure most worth checking with your mill, because knit widths vary with machine diameter, yarn and finishing, and a pattern that nests badly at one width can nest well at another. If you think in ounces, convert the weight first with our GSM converter: 1 oz/yd² is 33.906 g/m².
Can I use this calculator for bulk fabric booking?
Use it to plan, then book from the marker. The calculator treats each pattern piece as the rectangle it is cut from, which is a sound estimate before a pattern exists and good enough to budget fabric, compare weights, or check whether the fabric line in a quote is plausible. It is not a marker. For bulk, the factory grades your pattern across sizes and nests every piece of your size ratio in CAD at the real fabric width, and that marker gives the consumption the fabric is booked against. It is usually more precise than a rectangle estimate, and sometimes lower. Process loss in dyeing and finishing, end-of-roll waste and shade-band cutting are then added by the mill and the cutting room. If a supplier's booked figure is far above your estimate, ask to see the marker efficiency and the allowances they used; the difference usually sits in one of those numbers.
How much fabric do I need for 150 pieces?
Multiply the consumption per garment by 150, and buy body and rib separately. Using this calculator's typical size-M inputs, 150 t-shirts in 180 GSM jersey need about 31 kg of fabric, and 150 hoodies in 320 GSM fleece about 103 kg, of which about 11 kg is rib. That arithmetic is why minimums are set per colour as well as per style. Each colour is its own dye lot, a separate run of cloth dyed in a batch measured in hundreds of kilos, so every colourway you add is another lot for the mill to dye and match, not a slice of one big order. Our minimum is 150 pieces per style and per colour for that reason. Run your own measurements, weight and quantity through the calculator to see how many kilos each colourway needs, then use the MOQ calculator to multiply that across your styles and colours.
Is there an Excel fabric consumption calculator I can download?
Yes, free and with no sign-up. The Excel version has one sheet for each garment the online calculator covers, the t-shirt, long-sleeve tee, polo, sweatshirt, hoodie and joggers, with the same formulas written into the cells, so you can see how each number is reached and change any of them. Each sheet comes filled in with the typical size-M example from this page. Type your own measurements, GSM, wastage and quantity into the shaded input cells, and the kilos per garment, kilos per dozen, order total, linear metres and optional fabric cost recalculate. It opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers and LibreOffice. Many merchandisers keep a sheet like this next to their costing file, which is why the formulas are visible rather than locked. If you only need a quick answer, the online calculator does the same sums and gives you a link to share your result.
Sources & further reading
Trade, standards and regulatory details on this page last verified 14 October 2026. Terms change — ask us to confirm the current position for your order.