Calculating Fabric Size for Your Project

Before you start a new project, you need a piece of fabric that’s big enough for the design plus enough margin around it for framing or finishing. Buy too small and you’ll run out of room at the edges. Buy way too big and you’ve wasted nice fabric.

This page covers the math two ways:

• The manual calculation — so you actually understand what’s going on
• Built-in calculator — pop in your numbers and it does it for you
• Linen and evenweave (2-over-2) — the small twist for non-Aida fabric
• The classic YarnTree calculator — the long-time community favorite, if you’d rather use it

Manual calculation

You need three things from your pattern:

1. Stitch count, width — how many stitches across the design is
2. Stitch count, height — how many stitches tall the design is
3. Fabric count — how many stitches per inch your fabric supports (14-count Aida = 14 stitches per inch, 18-count Aida = 18 per inch, etc.)

Step 1 — Design size

Divide the stitch count by the fabric count to get the size the design itself will take up:

Design width (inches) = stitches wide ÷ fabric count
Design height (inches) = stitches tall ÷ fabric count

Example: a design that’s 140 wide × 100 tall stitched on 14-count Aida:

• Width = 140 ÷ 14 = 10 inches
• Height = 100 ÷ 14 = 7.14 inches

So the design itself takes up about 10” × 7”.

Step 2 — Add margin

You need extra fabric all the way around so you can hoop, frame, or finish your piece. A safe rule of thumb is 3 inches of margin on every side, which means 6 inches total added to each dimension.

Fabric width = design width + 6”
Fabric height = design height + 6”

Continuing the example:

• Fabric width = 10 + 6 = 16 inches
• Fabric height = 7.14 + 6 ≈ 13.14 inches

You’d want at least a 16” × 14” piece of Aida. (When in doubt, round up.)

When to use more or less margin

• 2”–3” per side is standard for most framed pieces.
• 4”+ per side if you’re doing a large finish, stretching over a frame with deep sides, or using a scroll frame.
• 1”–2” per side is fine for small ornaments or pieces that will be backed onto something else.

Calculator

Linen and evenweave

If you’re stitching on linen or evenweave, the standard practice is to stitch 2-over-2 — each X covers a square that’s 2 threads wide and 2 threads tall. That changes the math.

The trick: on linen/evenweave stitched 2-over-2, divide the fabric count by 2 to get your effective stitches per inch.

Fabric	Count	Stitched	Effective stitches/inch
14-count Aida	14	1-over-1	14
28-count linen	28	2-over-2	14
32-count linen	32	2-over-2	16
36-count linen	36	2-over-2	18

So 28-count linen stitched 2-over-2 is the same finished size as 14-count Aida — which is why a lot of patterns are written that way. In the calculator above, set “Stitched over” to 2 and put the full fabric count in.

Full coverage on linen (1-over-1)

You don’t have to stitch linen 2-over-2. Some stitchers prefer 1-over-1 on linen or evenweave for a denser, full-coverage look — every little square gets a stitch, with no fabric showing through. Popular choices:

• 25-count, 1-over-1 — chunkier full coverage, easier on the eyes
• 28-count, 1-over-1 — finer detail, smaller finished size

For these, set “Stitched over” to 1 in the calculator and use the full fabric count. A 140 × 100 design works out to:

Fabric	Stitched	Design size	Fabric needed (+3” margin)
25-count linen	1-over-1	5.6” × 4”	≈ 11.6” × 10”
28-count linen	1-over-1	5” × 3.57”	≈ 11” × 9.6”

YarnTree

If you’d rather use the classic community calculator, YarnTree’s fabric calculator has been around forever and is what a lot of stitchers learned on. It does the same math — just opens in a new tab.

Open YarnTree calculator ↗