A single reference table for tailored menswear. All figures are shell cloth for a size 40, plain, in yards. Lining and canvas are listed separately, and pattern matching is added on top. These are standard sizes on default settings — for anything bespoke, the calculator works from your own measurements and draws the cutting layout.
| Garment | 60″ | 58″ | 54″ | Lining | Canvas |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Two-piece suit | 3.95 | 3.95 | 4.10 | 1.91 | 0.75 |
| Three-piece suit | 4.18 | 4.26 | 4.73 | 2.31 | 0.75 |
| Sport coat | 2.56 | 2.56 | 2.70 | 1.91 | 0.50 |
| Trousers | 1.42 | 1.42 | 1.42 | 0.88 | — |
| Waistcoat | 0.80 | 0.80 | 0.80 | 0.68 | 0.25 |
| Dress shirt | 2.13 | 2.13 | 2.38 | — | 0.30 |
Size 40, regular length, plain cloth, flat-front trousers, no turn-ups. Round up when ordering — cloth is sold in whole and half yards.
These are standard sizes on default settings. Bespoke work rarely is — for your client’s actual measurements, your cloth’s repeat and your own style options, run it through the calculator, which also draws the cutting layout.
| Garment | 36R | 40R | 44R |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two-piece suit | 3.69 | 3.95 | 4.07 |
| Three-piece suit | 3.83 | 4.18 | 4.38 |
| Sport coat | 2.33 | 2.56 | 2.65 |
| Trousers | 1.40 | 1.42 | 1.45 |
| Waistcoat | 0.77 | 0.80 | 0.83 |
| Dress shirt | 1.97 | 2.13 | 2.38 |
Size affects yardage far less than most charts imply. Cloth width, pattern repeat and nap all move the number more than two sizes do.
| Cloth | Add to shell |
|---|---|
| Plain | — |
| Stripe | +15% |
| Check or plaid | +25% |
| Large repeat | up to +50% |
Applied to shell cloth only — lining never needs matching. Plain cloth is folded and cut two layers at a time so mirrored pieces come free; patterned cloth is cut single-layer to keep the repeat true across every seam. If you know the actual repeat size, enter it in the calculator rather than using these flat rates.
Velvet, corduroy, moleskin, brushed flannel and directional prints must be cut with every piece the same way up, or panels shade differently once made up. Tapered pieces can then no longer be nested head to toe.
The cost falls almost entirely on trousers, and it is large: on a 44R it adds about 1.2 yards, very nearly doubling the trouser order. Jackets, waistcoats and shirts are barely affected, since they have no long tapered pieces to nest.
Yardage is not a fixed quantity of cloth — it is a length of a particular width. What decides it is how many pattern pieces fit side by side across the cloth before you have to start a new length.
That is why yardage does not scale smoothly with size. Add half an inch to a trouser leg and nothing happens for several sizes, then one leg stops fitting across the width, moves onto a second length, and the requirement jumps by most of a yard at once. Any chart that gives a single number without naming a cloth width is hiding this.
The panel widths behind these numbers were cross-checked against Winifred Aldrich's Metric Pattern Cutting for Menswear and Alan Poulin's Tailoring Suits the Professional Way, then laid out piece by piece across the chosen cloth width to see how many lengths the layout actually needs.
They are estimates and should be treated as such — seam allowances, house style and a cutter's own habits all move the number. What they will not do is guess: every figure here comes from an actual arrangement of actual pattern pieces.
Calculate your exact yardage →