Free cosplay fabric yardage calculator. Estimate cloth or EVA foam needed for capes, pleated skirts, bodices, pauldrons, and gauntlets from simple body measurements and bolt-width choice. Built-in 10% safety margin.
Built and maintained by Paul Clark, Redmoon Software · Changes and corrections
Use before ordering fabric for a new cosplay piece. Always order a bit more than the estimate suggests — cuts and seams eat fabric.
Pattern instructions give exact yardage per pattern. This is for the planning stage — when you're deciding which fabric to buy, not how to cut it.
Full circle cape: π × radius² of cloth, budgeted at double that for the offcuts around a circle. Plan for hem.
Each garment preset uses simplified geometric estimates — full-circle cape ≈ 2 × π × radius² with the radius taken as 0.6 × height (the doubling covers offcuts from cutting a circle out of straight fabric), bodice = two flat panels, etc.
Required length is the safe area (estimate × 1.1 for waste) divided by your bolt width.
Always buy a bit more than the estimate — fabric mistakes compound quickly.
They're approximations using simplified geometry plus a 10% safety margin. Always buy a bit more for mistakes.
Yes — set the bolt width to your standard foam sheet (often 60 cm × 100 cm).
Wider bolts let more pattern pieces sit side by side, so a piece that needs two lengths on a 45-inch bolt may fit in one length on a 60-inch bolt. Always check the bolt width before buying so you do not overpay for yardage.
The built-in 10% margin covers seam allowances and small mistakes, but add more if your fabric has a directional nap or a pattern that must be matched at the seams. Plaids, stripes, and pile fabrics like velvet can require 15 to 25% extra.
Input
Full circle cape, 170 cm height, 60-inch (152 cm) bolt.
Output
~5 meters needed.
The tool takes the cape radius as 0.6 × height (102 cm) and budgets 2 × π × 102² ≈ 6.5 m², allowing for the offcuts when a circle is cut from straight-sided fabric. Plus the 10% safety margin that is 7.19 m², and 7.19 m² ÷ 1.52 m bolt width = 4.73 m of length, so about 5 m.
Yardage depends on how pattern pieces nest across the fabric's usable width, which is narrower than the width printed on the bolt once selvedges are excluded. Common widths differ enough — 45 inch against 60 inch — that the same garment can need substantially different yardage from each.
Nesting is why yardage does not scale neatly with size. A piece that just fits across the width at one size may not at the next, forcing a whole extra length rather than a proportional increase.
Any fabric with a nap — velvet, corduroy, most fur — must have every piece cut facing the same direction, or the colour reads differently between panels under light. The same applies to one-way prints. That constraint removes the option of rotating pieces to nest them, and typically adds 15–25% to the requirement.
Plaids and stripes go further: pieces must be cut to match across seams, which means additional length to align repeats. Buy extra rather than exactly, since dye lots vary and returning for more mid-build frequently means a visible mismatch.
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