Specification guide · 5 min read
Fabric width and what it does to your costing
By Dinesh Chhabra, CEO, Vidhi Fabrics · Published · Updated
A wider cloth is only cheaper if it lets you cut another pattern piece across it. Compare cost per piece, not rate per metre: divide the rate by how many pieces your own pattern yields at that width. Cuttable width excludes selvedges, and a quoted figure is often greige, not finished.
Width is the specification buyers check last and pay for first. Two quotations at the same rate per metre are not the same offer if the cloth is a different width, and a wider cloth is not automatically the better buy either. What decides it is whether the extra width lets you cut another piece across — and often it does not, in which case you are paying for cloth that goes into the waste. This guide covers the arithmetic, the difference between the width quoted and the width you can cut, and what to establish before comparing two prices.
Rate per metre and cost per garment are different questions
A metre of 58 inch cloth carries about 32 per cent more material than a metre of 44 inch cloth, because 58 divided by 44 is 1.32. Quoted at the same rate per metre, the narrower cloth is therefore around a third dearer for the same quantity of material.
That arithmetic is easy and it is also not the answer. You do not buy material, you buy pieces cut from it. What you actually need to know is how many pieces come off a metre of each width — and that depends on your pattern, not on the ratio.
So a rate per metre is only comparable between cloths of identical width. Across different widths it tells you almost nothing on its own.
Extra width only helps when another piece fits across
Take a pattern piece 26 inches wide. Across 58 inch cloth two of them fit, using 52 inches and wasting 6. Across 44 inch cloth only one fits, using 26 and wasting 18. Here the wider cloth yields twice as much per metre and is clearly the cheaper garment even at a higher rate.
Now take a piece 30 inches wide. Across 58 inch cloth one fits, wasting 28 inches. Across 44 inch cloth one fits, wasting 14. Both widths give you the same single piece per metre — so the wider cloth has produced nothing extra, and every rupee of the width premium has gone into the cutting waste. On that pattern the narrower cloth is the better buy.
This is why the same fabric at the same rate can be economical for one buyer and wasteful for another. Width is not a quality, it is a fit against your pattern, and nobody but you knows the pattern.
The width quoted and the width you can cut
A quoted width is usually the full width including selvedges, and selvedges are not cuttable. How much they take varies with the loom and the finish, and on some cloths the outer inch or two is also distorted or shaded differently enough to be unusable. Cuttable width is the number your marker actually runs on.
Finishing moves the figure too. Cloth can come off the loom at one width and out of the finishing range narrower, and a width quoted from greige is not the width that arrives. This is the same problem as reading what the cloth weighs from a greige figure rather than a finished one.
So ask for cuttable width, ask whether the figure is greige or finished, and ask what tolerance applies. Width varies between lots for the same reasons weight does.
Comparing two quotations at different widths
Do not convert to a rate per square metre and stop there. It is the right arithmetic for comparing material and the wrong arithmetic for comparing cost, because it assumes you can use every inch, which the previous section shows you usually cannot.
Lay the pattern out instead, even roughly. Work out how many pieces come off one metre at each width, divide the rate per metre by that number, and compare the results. That figure is cost per piece, and it is the only comparison that survives contact with a cutting table.
Where the widths give the same yield, take the narrower cloth. Where the wider one yields more, the premium is worth paying up to the point where the yields converge again.
Where this lands for a boutique order
The same question comes up on a finished set, not only on yardage. See the dress material wholesale page for unstitched suits, the polyester sarees wholesale page for saree lengths, and the saree wholesale for resellers page if you are buying a first mix for a boutique or a WhatsApp counter.
What to establish before comparing prices
Four answers turn two incomparable quotations into a decision.
- Cuttable width, not full width including selvedges
- Whether the width quoted is greige or finished
- The width tolerance, and whether it varies between lots
- How many pieces your own pattern yields per metre at that width
Frequently asked questions
- Is wider fabric always cheaper in the end?
- No. It is cheaper only when the extra width fits another pattern piece across. If it does not, the additional width becomes cutting waste that you have paid for, and a narrower cloth at a lower rate gives the same yield for less.
- What is cuttable width?
- The width your marker can actually use, once the selvedges and any distorted or off-shade edge are excluded. A quoted width usually includes the selvedges, so cuttable width is always the smaller of the two figures and the only one worth costing against.
- Can I just convert both quotations to a rate per square metre?
- It is a fair comparison of material and a poor comparison of cost, because it assumes every inch of width gets used. Convert to cost per piece instead: pieces per metre at that width, divided into the rate per metre. That is the number your cutting table will agree with.
- Does width change between lots?
- It can, for the same reasons weight does — loom tension, finishing route and batch. Agree a tolerance on width as well as on weight, and say which direction matters, because a cloth arriving narrower than costed changes your yield on every metre of the lot.
