Inchworm, Inchworm, measuring the marigolds....

Inchworm, Inchworm, measuring the marigolds.... the song I remember singing in grade one when math was new and exciting.  And then ...poof I was older and dreaded calculating....

Later, in high school - I never was a whiz in math class - but I went every day to class and did my best.  Trigonometry was a breeze until I overthought it.

​Then I figured - “who cares - I’ll never use this in real life”.  Well I was wrong.  I used it in policing learning about radar and lidar laser where we clocked speeders.  I memorized it - but still don’t understand it!

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Fast forward to my adulthood and quilting life and I am again bombarded by numbers....quilters really do use math.  Every. Single. Day.

Between 1975 and 1985  the Canadian government adopted the metric system.  Unfortunately they never thought about the fact that our closest neighbours were not about to follow us into the great world of the metric system. Quilters everywhere in Canada began the struggle trying to understand how much fabric to buy when calculating a new pattern or backing and batting for a project on the go. Everything was written in yards and inches.  Yet we now purchase in meters. 

I never realized what an issue this was until I worked as an employee at a quilt store - where many of the other employees often asked me to help them figure out fabric needs for a quilt or backing.  Customers would stand with pattern in hand - still unsure how much fabric or batting to purchase. The employee would ask,  "What does you pattern say?"  Not surprisingly it was written in imperioal measurement.

In Canada many patterns are in still inches and use yardage and yet we purchase fabric in meters.  We then cut triangles, rectangles and squares in inches and shrug our shoulders in confusion when we need to convert the two - to figure out how much we really need.

I have recently been designing and writing patterns and endeavouring to make them easier to follow for all ages and skills.  Much of the pattern writing revolves around giving exact measurements, trimming to exact sizes and adding pictures to match the words that describe how to cut and assemble.  In addition, I like to give the quilter 3 different sizes to each pattern so that they can make the pattern in a size that suits them.  Doing this involves a lot of simple math.

So let me pass along the simple math that steers me though all these calculations when writing out fabric requirements.  All you need with you is your phone or a calculator. Oh, and maybe a little chocolate. (It always makes me think better)  The magic number you will need is .025

A meter is pretty much 40 inches. (40 x .025 = 1) However many patterns are written in yardage - a yard being 36 inches.  A yard is smaller than a meter.

When you are told you need 2 yards of fabric (72 inches)  - DO NOT BUY 2 meters.  If you do, you risk putting your stash on steroids and removing too much cash from your wallet.

Two yards is 2 x 36 inches = 72 inches.  Grab your calculator and enter 72 x .025.  Your answer should be 1.8.  That’s how many meters you need to purchase.

If you had purchased 2 meters at an average of $22.00 a meter - you would have spent $44.00 plus tax for a total of $49.72  However if you purchased 1.8 meters at $22.00 a meter you would have spent $39.60 plus tax for a total of $44.75.  That's a savings of $4.97 cents.

When you consider that you purchase up to 9 yards of fabric including backing and binding for a large lap sized quilt - you are spending approximately $223.75 (incl taxes) for fabric in a large lap quilt.

If you had converted that yardage into meterage - you would have only purchased 8.1 meters with a total spend of $201.37.  On a lap quilt - you would have saved $22.38.  That's enough to purchase all the batting you need for a lap quilt.

Let me save all the chit chat and say on a queen sized quilt the difference is over $32.00.  

So the magic number you need to remember is .025.  (1 yard is 36 inches. 36 x .025 = .9 meters)

So let's put these calculations to use.  When you are figuring out how much fabric you need for binding - and you need 8 strips that are 2.5 inches wide - 8 x 2.5 = 20 inches. 
Using the formula 20 inches x .025  = .5 which is ½ a meter of fabric.

If you need ⅔ of a yard of fabric, ⅔ a yard is ⅔ of 36.  This is 24 inches.
Using the formula - 24 x .025 = .6 meters. It really is that easy.

Below is a chart with easy conversions if you hate using a calculator.  In the end the math does matter. And if you want to make quilting more affordable - it's worth more than its weight in fabric!

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