Crafts

Material quantities for yarn, fabric, beads, cord, clay and wire. 29 calculators, mostly answering the same question in different materials: how much do I need to buy before I start.

Fabric yardage asks about nap and pattern repeat, which is where estimates usually go wrong. A directional print or a napped fabric like velvet means every piece has to run the same way, and that can add 20 to 30% over a layout that allows pieces to be flipped. A large pattern repeat costs more again, because matching across a seam wastes whatever falls between repeats. Buying to a plain-fabric estimate and then discovering the fabric has a direction is a common and expensive surprise.

Yarn estimates work in yards rather than balls, then convert, because ball weights differ so much between brands that a pattern calling for “8 balls” is close to meaningless. Buy by yardage and dye lot, in one go. A second lot of the same shade is visibly different under daylight, and it always lands in the middle of the back.

Bead and cord pages return a count and a length together, since suppliers sell one way and patterns specify the other. Prices stay as inputs. Craft materials vary by supplier more than almost any other category here.