Calculating fabric sizes: meters, yards, inches and Fat Quarters

A yard (abbreviation: yd) is a British unit of length. Its legal definition from 1959 is exactly 0.9144 meters, which was jointly agreed between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Great Britain and the United States.

1 yd = 0.9144 m

An inch (abbreviation: in or ″) is a unit of length in the British-Imperial and US systems of measurement. That's 1⁄36 yard.

1 yd = 36"
1" = 2.54 cm

Fabrics and fat quarters (FQ)

A yard, divided into eight parts, has been the measure for buying fabrics in the United States and Great Britain, and it used to be elsewhere as well. In the US, the term "fat quarter" refers to a half-yard-long cut from a roll of fabric cut in half widthwise, i.e. the same area as a quarter-yard piece cut across the width of the roll. These are popular piece sizes for quilting.

The term "fat eighth" refers to a piece of a quarter of a yard the width of half a roll, that is, a piece of the same size as a piece of an eighth of a yard of the width of a full roll.

Today, the term "fat quarter" is used throughout the fabric industry.

In the metric system, one FQ piece refers to a piece of about 50x55cm.

In the British System of Units, it similarly refers to a piece measuring ½ yard (18") x 44" ~ 45cm x 55cm

From time to time we import pre-cut fabrics from British system countries (Great Britain, USA) and then the FQ piece size refers to that smaller size.