Fabric Consumption Chart for Tailors

How much cloth will it take is the first question asked at the counter and the last one most tailors have a written answer for. It gets answered from memory, and memory is generous on a slow day and stingy on a busy one.

Both directions cost money. Quote short and the customer returns for another metre, which either comes out of your margin or out of her patience. Quote long and she buys the extra, hands you the leftover, and quietly decides the next shop might be cheaper.

These are working fabric consumption figures for every garment in a normal Indian tailoring shop, the five things that change them, and how to quote so the number holds.

Fabric Consumption Is a Business Number, Not a Technical One

The cutting master thinks of consumption as how much cloth the pattern needs. The shop owner should think of it as the largest single input cost in the order, because on most garments the fabric is worth more than the labour.

Two habits follow from that. Quote the figure out loud at the counter, so the customer hears a number rather than a shrug. And record what the garment actually took after cutting, because after twenty orders you will have your own consumption chart, built on your own patterns and your own fabric widths, which beats any chart in an article including this one.

Everything below assumes 44 inch fabric unless another width is stated, and assumes an average adult size. Read the adjustments further down before quoting a large size or a bordered fabric.

Women's Wear: Cloth Required

Lehenga consumption varies more than anything else in that table because the kali count and the flare change everything. Our lehenga cutting guide works through the kali arithmetic in full.

Gents Wear: Cloth Required

Gents fabric is usually wider, so the widths below are not all the same. A 58 or 60 inch suiting changes the arithmetic completely against a 44 inch cotton.

Note the lining rows. On a coat or a sherwani the lining, canvas and interlining together can add as much again as the outer fabric, and a quote that covers only the outer is a quote that will be revised in front of the customer.

Kids and School Uniform: Cloth Required

Children's consumption swings hard with size, so a single figure is useless. These are given at two sizes so you can interpolate.

For a bulk uniform order do not multiply these by the piece count. A properly laid marker across a size run uses noticeably less per garment than the single-piece figure, which is the whole reason bulk uniform work is quoted differently.

The Five Things That Change the Number

Every figure above assumes a plain fabric, an average size and a free layout. Break any of those assumptions and the number moves, sometimes a long way.

1. Fabric Width

The single biggest factor and the one most often forgotten at the counter. The same blouse that takes one metre at 44 inches can take one and a half at 36 inches, because the pieces no longer sit side by side. Always ask the width before quoting, and never quote from a chart without knowing it.

2. One-Way Prints and Napped Fabrics

On a directional print, a velvet or a fabric with a nap, every piece has to lie the same way up. That removes the cutter's freedom to turn a piece around to fill a gap, and it costs ten to fifteen per cent more cloth.

3. Borders and Pallu Placement

A bordered fabric decides where the pieces go rather than the other way round. On a blouse it can add fifteen to twenty per cent because the border has to fall correctly on the sleeve and the hem, and the offcuts in between are unusable. Quote bordered fabric separately; it is not the same garment.

4. Checks and Stripes

Matching across seams means each piece has to start at the same point in the repeat, and the fabric between those points is waste. Ten to twenty per cent extra depending on the size of the repeat, and a large check costs more than a small one.

5. Size

The chart figures hold to about XL. Above that the pieces stop nesting neatly, a wide front no longer fits beside a wide back, and the layout opens up. Add fifteen to twenty per cent from XXL upwards rather than assuming the increase is proportional, because it is not.

Shrinkage and Wastage: The Two Allowances

The chart gives the cloth the pattern occupies. Two allowances sit on top of it and both belong in the quote.

Shrinkage applies to cotton and cotton blends, at three to five per cent and almost entirely in the length. It matters most on long garments and on anything washed frequently, so a nighty, a school uniform and a petticoat all need it, while a lined silk blouse does not.

Cutting wastage is what is left between the pieces. Cutting one garment at a time with shears, eight to twelve per cent is normal and hard to improve on, because a single garment simply cannot be nested against anything. On a bulk lay it should be far lower, and if it is not, the marker is the problem.

So the honest quote is the chart figure, plus shrinkage where the fabric needs it, plus your real wastage. Work out what your wastage actually is once, on a real order, and use that number instead of a guess.

Where the Fabric Actually Goes

On single orders there is not much to win. On volume, fabric waste is the largest recoverable cost in the shop, and most shops have never measured theirs.

Typical wastage runs roughly like this:

• Single garment cut with shears: 8 to 12 per cent, and there is little to be done about it
• Bulk lay with a hand-drawn marker: 12 to 18 per cent, which surprises most people, because a marker drawn by eye across many sizes is usually worse than cutting one at a time
• Bulk lay with a computer-nested marker: 3 to 8 per cent

The middle row is the one worth sitting with. A shop that has moved to bulk cutting but is still marking by hand is often wasting more fabric per garment than it was before, and the loss is invisible because nobody weighs the offcuts.

Halving your wastage on a bulk order is the same as being handed six per cent of your fabric bill back, every order, forever. On plain uniform or nightwear cotton that alone tends to justify a fabric cutting machine faster than the labour saving does, and it is the number worth putting in front of your accountant rather than the speed.

What Changes When the Marker Is Made on a Computer

A nesting program does one thing well: it tries thousands of arrangements of the same pieces and keeps the tightest one. A person marking by hand gets one attempt and has to be able to see the whole lay at once.

It also holds the rules while it does it. One-way prints, check repeats, grain direction and border placement are all constraints the software respects automatically, so the tight layout it finds is one you can actually cut.

And the number becomes visible. The marker reports its own efficiency, so consumption stops being a matter of opinion and becomes a figure you can quote from, argue from, and improve.

How to Quote Fabric So the Number Holds

Ask the width first. Ask whether the fabric is printed one way, bordered or checked. Ask the size. Then take the chart figure, apply the adjustments, add shrinkage if it is cotton, add your measured wastage, and round up to the next quarter metre.

Say the number and say what it covers. A customer who is told three metres for a wide palazzo in a plain 44 inch cotton has been given a professional answer. One who is told about three, maybe three and a half has been told the tailor is guessing, and she will price-check you.

Then write down what it actually took. That single habit turns this article into your own chart within a couple of months, and yours will be better than this one because it is built on your patterns.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much cloth is needed for a saree blouse?

One metre of 44 inch fabric for a short-sleeve blouse and one and a quarter for elbow or long sleeve. Add about 0.6 m if it is fully lined and another 0.25 m if the fabric is bordered, because the border placement removes the cutter's freedom to nest the pieces.

How much fabric does a kurti take?

Two metres of 44 inch fabric for a straight cut at regular length and two and a half for an A-line. A full A-line takes 2.75 m and a ten kali Anarkali takes four and a half to five.

Why does the same garment need more cloth in 36 inch fabric?

Because the pieces stop fitting side by side. At 44 inches a front and a back often lie next to each other; at 36 they cannot, so the layout runs down the length instead and the total goes up by anywhere from twenty to fifty per cent depending on the garment.

How much extra fabric should be added for checks or stripes?

Ten to twenty per cent, depending on the size of the repeat. Every piece has to begin at the same point in the pattern for the seams to match, and the fabric between those points cannot be used. A large check costs more than a small one.

What is a normal fabric wastage percentage?

Eight to twelve per cent cutting single garments with shears, twelve to eighteen on a bulk lay marked by hand, and three to eight on a computer-nested marker. If you have never measured yours, weigh the offcuts from one full order; it is usually higher than expected.

Cut Your Fabric Bill With Fashion Dot

Fashion Dot has been building tailoring technology for Indian tailors since 2003. The software nests markers automatically while respecting grain, one-way prints and check repeats, reports the efficiency of every marker so consumption stops being guesswork, grades full size runs in one step, works in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada, and includes on-site installation and training. See the pricing page for current plans.

See What Your Own Marker Is Costing You

Bring the pattern for whichever garment you cut most of to a free demo. We will nest it against your fabric width, show you the efficiency figure, and compare it with what you are getting now, on your garment rather than a sample. Book a free demo or call us on 84486 38639.