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How many WOF strips your yardage yields, and how much fabric to buy for the strips your pattern needs.
| Strip Width | Per 1/4 yd | Per 1/2 yd | Per Yard |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-1/2" | 6 | 12 | 24 |
| 2" | 4 | 9 | 18 |
| 2-1/4" | 4 | 8 | 16 |
| 2-1/2" | 3 | 7 | 14 |
| 3" | 3 | 6 | 12 |
| 4" | 2 | 4 | 9 |
| 5" | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| 6-1/2" | 1 | 2 | 5 |
Strips are cut selvage to selvage (WOF). Counts = fabric length ÷ strip width, rounded down. Each strip yields ~40″ of usable length.
| Strips Needed | Yardage to Buy |
|---|---|
| 5 | 3/8 yd |
| 10 | 3/4 yd |
| 15 | 1-1/8 yd |
| 20 | 1-1/2 yd |
| 30 | 2-1/8 yd |
| 40 | 2-7/8 yd |
Yardage = strips × 2.5″ ÷ 36, rounded up to the nearest 1/8 yard. 40 strips is one jelly roll's worth.
Blenders and near-solids make forgiving strip sets — or grab a jelly roll and skip the cutting.
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14 strips. A yard is 36" long, and 36 ÷ 2.5 = 14.4, which rounds down to 14 full-width strips. Each strip gives you roughly 40–42" of usable length after trimming selvages, so a yard yields about 560" of 2.5"-wide strip.
A standard jelly roll is forty 2.5" × WOF strips, which takes 40 × 2.5 = 100" of fabric length — just under 2-7/8 yards. The difference, of course, is that a jelly roll gives you 40 different prints; 2-7/8 yards of yardage gives you 40 matching strips.
A WOF (width of fabric) strip from standard 44/45" quilting cotton measures 42–44" edge to edge, but plan on 40–42" of usable length once selvages are trimmed. Calculators on this site use 40" to be safe — if your fabric is generous, the extra is bonus.
Standard WOF strips are crossgrain (selvage to selvage) — they're economical and have a little stretch, which is forgiving in piecing. Lengthwise-grain strips barely stretch at all, which makes them the better choice for long borders that need to hang straight, at the cost of using more fabric. For binding on curved edges, use bias strips instead — see the binding calculator.
The classic jelly roll race uses 40 strips at 2.5" — one jelly roll, or 2-7/8 yards cut into 14 strips per yard. Sewn end to end that's roughly 1,600" of strip, which folds into a quilt of about 48" × 64" depending on seam allowances.