Fabric calculator
Dressmaker Fabric Calculator
Pick a cut, or open the dress you built, and the estimate is broken down by part, by cloth and by variant — with what each swap would change before you make it. When the bolt is nearly empty, start from the amount you have left instead and see what still fits it.
178 patterns · 236 cuts · 352 fabrics · build 25482629
What are you pricing?
A whole dress is the sum of its parts, and a leftover is cloth you have already paid for. Start with the question you actually have.
- Calculate my whole dressOpen the garment you built in the workbench, with its own patterns, cuts and cloth.
- Single patternOne cut on its own: its panels, its estimate and its other variants.
- Compare patternsTwo cuts of the same part, side by side in cloth.
- Use leftover fabricEnter what is left on the bolt and see which patterns still fit it.
What can I make with what is left?
Enter the amount on the bolt and every pattern is measured against it — each one at the cut of its own that would spend the most of your leftover without going over.
Nothing to compare against yet
The list appears as soon as an amount is entered, because whether a cut fits is a fact about the cloth on the shelf rather than about the pattern.
How these rows were chosen
A cut is estimated from the total area of its panels, a cloth allowance over that area and a small allowance for every panel. The planner adds one rule of its own: a pattern is priced at the heaviest of its cuts that still fits, so nothing is offered at a lighter cut than it could spend. When none of a pattern’s cuts fit, its lightest one is shown instead, so the row can say how far off it was.
Three ways to spend what is left
Spend it on a lighter cut of a pattern you already make, drop to a smaller part such as a collar or a sleeve, or cut it into an Off-the-Rack dress and recover part of what you paid for the cloth.
What the estimate does not prove
The estimate is arithmetic on panel area, so it cannot prove that a layout fits. Panel shapes, grain lines, bias cuts and the order the pieces are nested in all decide that on the table, and a leftover barely above an estimate can still be too little.
Continue
Where this number is spent.
- Open in Dress BuilderChange the cloth, the sleeves, the collar or the decorations — the workbench is where a garment is edited, and it scores the change as you make it.
- Browse every patternThe whole pattern catalogue, filtered by style, fabric use, panel count and unlock.
- Browse fabricsEvery cloth the game has, with its type, its colours, its price and the styles it moves.
Why the estimate behaves the way it does:How fabric usage is calculated
Common questions
Fabric amount questions
How much fabric does a pattern need in Dressmaker?
The total area of the panels the pattern cuts, plus a cloth allowance over that area, plus an allowance for every panel. Panel count matters as much as outline, so two bodices that cover the same body can need different amounts — which is why the panel count is printed beside the estimate rather than folded into it.
Why do different variants use different amounts?
A variant is a different set of panels rather than a restyle of one. A second variant of a bodice can cut two more panels, and each of those brings its own area and its own allowance. Switching variant is the first thing to try when the cloth is short, and it costs nothing but the style the game attaches to each cut.
Does bias use more fabric?
Nothing extra is charged for it. A bias panel is priced on its own area like any other panel of the same size, and no multiplier is added anywhere on this page. Bias is carried through as a flag and a grain direction, and the count is printed so you can see it without it being turned into a number it is not.
How do I know if I have enough fabric?
Enter what you have left in the planner and it compares that amount with every cut it can price, marking each row as likely to fit, close, or short by estimate. Read the result as a planning answer: the arithmetic measures panel area and does not test whether the panels would physically lie out on your piece of cloth.
What can I make with leftover fabric?
Small parts first. A sleeve or a collar takes a fraction of what a bodice or a skirt does, and the planner is ordered to spend your cloth rather than to find the biggest pattern it can fit — so the top of the list is the cut that gets closest to using all of it.
Can I use leftover fabric for Off-the-Rack dresses?
It is usually the best use of it. An Off-the-Rack dress is sewn and sold rather than commissioned, so the cloth comes back as coin instead of sitting on a shelf, and the sale price is estimated on a page of its own before you spend the fabric.
Why doesn't fabric cost equal usage × price?
Because the two formulas are not the same one. Usage charges the panel area, a cloth allowance over it and a per-panel allowance; cost charges the panel area, a smaller per-panel figure, and multiplies the result by the cloth's price. Multiplying the usage figure by the price lands close to the game's number and never on it.
Estimating fabric for a dress
The fabric calculator turns a pattern into a cloth figure. Pick a cut — bodice, skirt, sleeve or collar — or open the whole dress you built in the workbench, and the page prices every panel that pattern cuts.
Every figure comes from the game's own arithmetic: the total area of the selected panels, plus a cloth allowance over that area, plus a small allowance for each panel in the cut. That is why the panel count matters. Two bodices with the same outline and different panel counts do not need the same amount of fabric, and the difference is visible here rather than hidden inside a rating.
Because the estimate is per pattern and per variant, swapping one pattern for another is a calculation rather than a guess. The comparison table puts two cuts side by side on panels, estimated fabric, the difference and bias-cut panels, and the lower-fabric shelf names what a lighter cut costs in style — the styles a pattern moves are published by the game, so the trade is stated instead of implied.
The result is the amount of fabric the game charges for a cut, not a measurement in metres or yards: the game data records no real-world unit, and inventing one would be a guess dressed up as a number. Fabric choice changes what a dress costs and how it scores; it does not change how much fabric it takes.
What to do with leftover fabric
Leftover cloth is a budget rather than a remainder. Enter the amount you have and the planner prices every pattern against it, heaviest fitting cut first, so a small piece of silk is matched with the sleeve or collar it can actually become instead of with the bodice it cannot.
Two moves usually come out of it. Within a pattern you already own, a lighter variant is free to switch to, because a variant is a different set of panels rather than a restyle. Across patterns, a smaller part is the honest answer: a collar takes a fraction of what a skirt does, and cloth that is short of a whole dress is often enough for one.
If nothing in the catalogue fits, the cloth still has a use. A dress sewn Off-the-Rack is sold rather than commissioned, and the sale price calculator works out what that comes to — which is the step that turns leftover fabric back into coin.