When you’re seeking to re-upholster a piece of furniture, determining how much upholstery printed or unprinted fabric you’ll need can be difficult. Once your upholsterer receives measurements and images, or sees the piece in person, they will let you know how much the job will cost.
The amount of fabric, might be printed fabrics or not, needed to cover a sofa is determined by the size of your furniture. Keep in mind that sofas come in a variety of sizes, and you may need to set aside additional material for other features. When producing sofa arm covers for couches with rounded arms, for example, you will learn to add more fabric to the measurement.
The quantity you need will be determined by the fabric you choose, since you may need more to allow for pattern matching if you use a patterned fabric. If you’re doing the work yourself, here’s a rough estimate of how much upholstery fabric you’ll need. We constantly emphasize that this is only a suggestion, and that the amounts are approximate because each piece of furniture and fabric is unique.
Measure your sofa.
- Measure the length of your sofa’s back. This will usually be between 60 and 90 inches.
- Count all of your cushions, including the lower and upper backrests. Depending on the style of your sofa, you may have anywhere from four to eight cushions.
- Make sure to look for skirting or button tufting on your sofa.
- Decide if you’ll use a specific pattern or a foundation cloth when planning your fabric design.
- You can start calculating the yardage needed for recovering your sofa once you’ve determined the size, number of cushions, inclusion of skirting / button tufting, and chosen replacement fabric pattern.
Calculate the yardage.
- One and a half yards each foot and two yards per cushion.
The average quantity of fabric yardage required to cover a sofa is 12 yards. This amount of unprinted fabric should be plenty for a regular 6 foot sofa. To this base estimate, add two yards per foot or one and a half yards per sofa cushion.
- Add one and a half yards to the skirt and two yards to the tufting.
It’s worth noting that some people make the couch cushion covers separately from the sofa cover. In that instance, the cushion unprinted fabric yardage will be determined by the cover type and cushion size. It’s also worth mentioning that you’ll need one and a half to two yards of fabric for other couch elements like the skirt or tufting.
- Add two yards if you’re using a cloth design.
The suggested lengths are based on standard-sized chairs and sofas, as well as the use of basic cloth. If you’re using a patterned cloth, you’ll need 10-20{d4d1dfc03659490934346f23c59135b993ced5bc8cc26281e129c43fe68630c9} extra, depending on how long the pattern repeats. If you know where the unprinted fabric joins are based on your current sofa, you can add the vertical pattern repetition for each junction.
If the printed fabric you’re using includes patterns that must be followed, expect to require an extra two yards. Remember that using a cover where the designs must match is more difficult than using solid materials. You may need to construct more pieces and then link them, so two more yards are a great addition to the required yardage. You may check out Create Fabrics, a wholesale fabric supplier for affordable and elegant printed fabrics!
Important points to consider.
- Over-estimate. It’s always a good idea to overestimate when buying clothes as a rule of thumb. Purchasing a few extra yards of fabric isn’t a bad idea, and some people do so in case they need to recover a cushion in the future. Revolution performance fabrics provide a long-lasting, soft-to-the-touch product that is also bleach cleanable. This may reduce the likelihood of stains ruining the cushions. Revolution performance textiles are perfect for restoring your living room sofa or outdoor furniture.
- Include a safety margin. To get a more precise estimate, measure each part of the sofa that needs printed or unprinted fabric and combine them together, then add 10-15{d4d1dfc03659490934346f23c59135b993ced5bc8cc26281e129c43fe68630c9} as a margin of error. Start with the outer back, then the interior back, the outside of the arms, and finally the inside of the arms. Then add the gusset and the area of each cushion’s surface. Simply divide your sofa surface into as many small rectangles as necessary, calculate the area of each, add them together, and add 15{d4d1dfc03659490934346f23c59135b993ced5bc8cc26281e129c43fe68630c9} more as a safety margin.
Conclusion
Before you go fabric shopping, establish an accurate estimate of how much yardage you’ll need. To summarize this instruction on how much fabric to cover a sofa, two yards per foot and roughly the same amount for additional sofa elements will be allocated. Different sofa styles will necessitate various amounts of upholstery fabric. Typically, 10-15m is required for a two-seat piece.
Please consult your upholsterer before placing an order, as the following information is simply a preliminary estimate. However, don’t rely solely on these estimations; it’s always a good idea to measure the sofa first. When estimating and buying fabric, don’t cut corners. It’s much better to buy a few extra yards of fabric than to run out of fabric and be unable to buy more!
