It goes without saying that poor measurements in upholstery projects can result in poor outcomes. If you plan to tackle a DIY upholstery fabric as a homeowner, renter, artist or interior design enthusiast, then you need to know the exact measurements to cover a piece of furniture. Yet many struggle to determine the perfect yardage every time. This upholstery fabric guide covers all the measuring tips needed to prevent waste during an upholstery project.
Common Do-It-Yourself Mistakes
When dealing with upholstery fabric, a buyer can fail to measure and cut correctly due to inadequate preparation or disregarding basic rules. For instance, they might have overlooked fabric shrinkage variations or the complete set of tools needed for the project.
These frequent errors can drain both your financial resources and precious time. Without all the necessary tools, you could waste time looking for them, become disheartened or angry, and end up making mistakes that could be crucial.
The Right Tools for the Job
If you’re using a pattern, read the included measurements and overall guidelines. Confirm that the pieces will align properly and cover the entire object. Also, consider beforehand furniture fabric types and how you want a chosen surface pattern to flow across the furniture. You will typically need 10% to 20% more fabric than the basic minimum to account for the size of the furniture piece and the specific material and surface pattern repeats.
Of course, you also need the essential tools used by every professional upholsterer, such as a chalk marker or fabric pencil, a cutting mat, measuring tape, a long ruler with a straight edge, and scissors designed specifically for use with upholstery fabric. Lighting is also very important. Yellow light or warm light can make it harder for you to see fine details and cause eye strain and fatigue. The best source of light is to work in natural sunlight or use lighting with LED bulbs that reproduce the appearance of natural light.
How to Take Accurate Measurements
To accurately measure fabric, you need to do more than exactly align and measure each piece of the upholstery fabric, particularly if it has a pattern. For example, you must add extra fabric (approximately a few inches) to your material measurements to account for stretching the fabric onto the furniture frame. The material will be held in place with the use of fabric glue, nails, staples or studs.
Sellers typically sell upholstery fabric that is 54-inch wide, a standard in the industry. You can also find specialty fabrics with 45-inch and 60-inch widths. The length of a yard of unrolled fabric is equal to 36 inches. To calculate the total yardage for your project, you start by placing the pattern pieces across the fabric in rows. You then measure each row’s length from top to bottom, add the lengths together, and add to that number as many inches as you previously calculated for shrinkage, hems and other reasons. Finally, you divide the total number of inches by 36 and round up.
For additional help with calculating the yardage of upholstery fabrics, check out our convenient Fabric Yardage Calculator. This handy calculator provides a solid yardage estimate based on fabric width, and the width and height dimensions of the area you need to cover.