Buyer Guide · Order Planning

Fabric Consumption per Garment: How Garment Counts Become Metres — and Which Minimum They Land On

Fabric consumption per garment is the total pattern-piece area, seam allowances included, divided by cuttable width × marker efficiency (typically ~75–85% for wovens). At 58–60 inch cuttable width a woven shirt plans around 1.5–1.8 m — so 300 shirts is roughly 480 m of one fabric, and the commercial question becomes which processing minimum that lands on: dyeing commits 1,500 m per colour under 160 GSM, digital print starts at 100 m.

Updated 22 August 2026

How is fabric consumption per garment calculated?

One figure connects the way brands plan with the way fabric is bought. A brand plans in garments; every minimum we publish is in metres; consumption per garment is the bridge between the two — and it comes from the marker, not from a rule of thumb. The method: consumption per garment = total pattern-piece area (seam allowances included) ÷ (cuttable width × marker efficiency). Three terms, and each one moves the answer:

Total pattern-piece area. Every piece the garment needs — fronts, backs, sleeves, collar and stand, cuffs, plackets, facings, pockets — each with its seam allowance, summed. This is a property of your pattern in your size curve; no consumption table can know it for you.
Cuttable width, not stated width. Stated width includes the selvedges and the pin- or clip-marked edges left by stentering, which the marker cannot use — cuttable width typically runs an inch or two narrower (indicative; measure it on your quality). And plan against the agreed band, not the nominal figure: width on Burhan-coordinated orders is agreed at ±3 inches, so a marker planned tight at 60 inches has no answer to a compliant delivery at 57.
Marker efficiency. The share of the cloth's area the pattern pieces actually occupy once nested; the rest is unavoidable space between pieces. For wovens, planning figures of roughly 75–85% are typical (indicative): rectangles nest well, large curved pieces do not, and a small marker with few sizes in it nests worse than a full size ratio.
Matching and direction waste. Stripes and checks that must match at seams, one-way prints, and napped or brushed cloths that force every piece to lie the same way all cost efficiency points — matching alone commonly adds several per cent to consumption (indicative; the repeat size decides).

A worked example, with round figures chosen for the arithmetic's sake: a shirt whose pattern pieces total 1.8 m² including seam allowances, cut on cloth with 1.5 m of cuttable width (a little under 60 inches) at 80% marker efficiency, consumes 1.8 ÷ (1.5 × 0.8) = 1.8 ÷ 1.2 = 1.5 m per shirt. Every figure in that calculation is an assumption except the arithmetic — which is exactly why the bands below are planning bands and nothing more. For conversion when widths are quoted in inches: 58 inches = 1.473 m and 60 inches = 1.524 m.

Indicative consumption bands at 58–60 inch cuttable width

The bands below exist so you can plan before a marker does. They assume 58–60 inches of cuttable width, a solid or non-directional fabric with no matching, and the size stated in each row. They are planning bands, not commitments: your pattern and your marker decide the real figure, and a size curve weighted towards larger sizes sits higher in its band than one weighted towards smaller.

Indicative fabric consumption per garment at 58–60 inch cuttable width — planning bands only; the pattern and marker decide the real figure on any specific style
Garment	Assumptions the band rests on	Indicative consumption per garment
Woven shirt, long sleeve	Size M–L, standard collar and cuffs, solid fabric, no matching	≈ 1.4–1.8 m
Chino / trouser	32–34 inch waist, straight leg, no turn-ups	≈ 1.2–1.5 m
Summer dress	Knee length, size M, moderate flare	≈ 1.5–2.2 m
Kurta	Knee length, long sleeve, straight cut	≈ 1.8–2.4 m
Tote bag	≈ 38 × 42 cm finished body, self-fabric handles	≈ 0.35–0.5 m

Two additions before these numbers go into a plan. First, matching: put the same shirt into a check that must align at the front, pocket and sleeve and the band shifts upward — several per cent is common, more for a large repeat (indicative). Second, cutting allowance: bulk fabric is bought with an allowance over the net requirement — consumption per garment × garment count — covering end-of-roll losses, splices, fault cut-arounds and relaxation between delivery and cutting; the allowance is agreed per order at inquiry. Neither addition changes the method — both are simply more area over the same width and efficiency.

From garments to metres — and into the minimums

Here is the arithmetic this page exists for. Consumption converts garments into metres; the process the fabric goes through converts metres into a commitment — and the two do not meet where most first orders expect. Take 300 shirts at 1.6 m per shirt: 300 × 1.6 = 480 m. If those shirts are a dyed colour under 160 GSM, the dyeing minimum is 1,500 m per colour, and each shade is a separate dye lot — so a three-colour dyed style commits 3 × 1,500 = 4,500 m regardless of the garment count. That is the arithmetic behind the 300-piece order that needed 4,500 metres of fabric on our small-brands guide: the garments needed 480 m; the dye lots committed 4,500.

What 300 shirts at ≈ 1.6 m each, in three colourways of one style, commit you to by route — the consumption figure is indicative; the minimums are confirmed
Route	Minimum that applies	Fabric committed	What sets the figure
Dyed, under 160 GSM	1,500 m per colour — each shade a separate dye lot	3 × 1,500 = 4,500 m	The dye lot; garment count is irrelevant below the minimum
Dyed, 160 GSM and above	3,000 m per colour	3 × 3,000 = 9,000 m	The dye lot; the minimum doubles at the 160 GSM step
Rotary print	3,000 m per colour per design	3 × 3,000 = 9,000 m	Screens engraved per design
Digital / sublimation print	100 m per colour per design	3 × 160 = 480 m plus cutting allowance — each colourway's 160 m (100 shirts at 1.6 m each) clears the 100 m floor	The marker; consumption drives the buy
Available quality	No processing minimum to trigger — the cloth already exists; what is on hand is confirmed at inquiry	≈ 480 m plus cutting allowance	The marker

Two things fall out of that table. First, the break-even count: a 1,500 m dye lot at 1.6 m per shirt cuts 1,500 ÷ 1.6 = 937.5 — call it 937 whole shirts — per colour. Below that count, a dyed shade means committing metres the garments cannot absorb; above it, the minimum stops being the constraint and consumption quietly takes over. A heavier consumer breaks even sooner: at 2.0 m per garment the same lot cuts 750. Second, the route changes everything while the garments change nothing: the same 300 shirts stand at 4,500 m dyed and 480 m printed digitally. And if your base sits near the 160 GSM step, settle the tier early: the dyeing minimum doubles at the step, and with finished GSM agreed at ±5, which side of it a near-boundary weight falls on is confirmed at inquiry.

From our sourcing floor

The same 800 metres can be one stranded lot or four comfortable ones.

Enquiries reach us sized in garments, and the totals can be identical while the orders are nothing alike. In the same week: two shirting enquiries, both around 500 pieces, both about 800 m at 1.6 m per shirt. The first wanted a single dyed colour — one lot, and a dyed lot under 160 GSM is 1,500 m, so the order as imagined carried 700 m the garments would never absorb. The second wanted four digitally printed colourways of one artwork — four lots of 125 shirts each, 125 × 1.6 = 200 m per colourway, every one comfortably above the 100 m per-colour floor. Same total; one order sat stranded 700 m above its own needs, and the other cleared every minimum with room to spare.

So the first question we ask is never the total — it is the split: how many separate dye lots and print runs does this collection actually create? The total metre count decides very little; the split into lots decides the order. The first brand did not need a smaller shirt or a harder negotiation — it needed either the confidence to grow that colour towards the 937 shirts a 1,500 m lot cuts, or a route where the lot floor is 100 m instead of 1,500.

How do you reduce the fabric you have to commit?

Every workable answer does one of two things: it reduces the number of separate lots, or it moves a lot onto a lower floor. Reducing garments does neither while the order sits below a minimum.

Cut colourways before you cut garments. Trimming 300 dyed shirts to 200 changes the committed fabric not at all — the lot is still 1,500 m per colour. Dropping from three dyed colourways to two removes 1,500 m at a stroke: 4,500 becomes 3,000.
Print instead of dye where the design allows. Digital and sublimation printing runs at 100 m per colour per design against 1,500 m per dyed colour under 160 GSM — a fifteen-fold drop in the lot floor, for any style where the design can carry the colour instead of the cloth.
Pool styles onto one base. Three styles sharing one dyed base pool their consumption into the same lot, so the 1,500 m is absorbed collectively rather than confronted three times over.
Use available qualities where custom is not earning its keep. Available dyed, printed and RFD (ready-for-dyeing) cloth already exists, so no processing minimum has to be triggered — the buy is the consumption plus cutting allowance, whatever the garment count; what is on hand for a specific quality is confirmed at inquiry.
Plan the marker at the width you will actually receive. With width agreed at ±3 inches, a marker planned at the bottom of the band survives any compliant delivery. One planned at the nominal width can force replanning at lower efficiency — raising consumption per garment after the fabric is already committed.

What is not on the list is negotiating the minimum downwards. A dye lot is the size of batch a machine can viably run, not an opening position, and the metres above your marker are not a buffer anyone added — they are the process itself. The lever that responds is the structure of the order, and the full set of routes for orders that sit below every minimum is on low-MOQ fabric sourcing.

The planning numbers in one place

For plans built away from this page — the confirmed minimums, the indicative planning figures, and the conversions between the units buyers and mills quote in:

Digital / sublimation print minimum: 100 m per colour per design
Rotary print minimum: 3,000 m per colour per design
Dyeing minimum, under 160 GSM: 1,500 m per colour — each shade a separate dye lot
Dyeing minimum, 160 GSM and above: 3,000 m per colour
Marker efficiency, wovens: ≈ 75–85%, indicative — geometry, sizes and matching decide
Width conversion: 58 inches = 1.473 m · 60 inches = 1.524 m
Weight conversion: 1 oz/yd² = 33.906 GSM
Agreed tolerance bands: GSM ±5 · width ±3 inches

Frequently asked questions

How much fabric do I need for 100, 300 or 500 shirts?

At an indicative 1.6 m per shirt: 100 shirts ≈ 160 m, 300 shirts ≈ 480 m, 500 shirts ≈ 800 m, before cutting allowance — and all three totals sit below the 1,500 m per-colour dyeing minimum, so if the shirts are a dyed shade under 160 GSM the fabric bought is 1,500 m per colour in every case. Printed digitally (100 m per colour per design) or cut from available fabric, the consumption figure itself is the buy. The 1.6 m figure is a planning assumption; your pattern and marker decide the real one.

What is marker efficiency?

Marker efficiency is the percentage of the fabric's area the pattern pieces actually occupy once nested into the cutting marker — the remainder is the unavoidable space between pieces. Wovens typically plan around 75–85% (indicative). Piece geometry decides most of it: rectangles nest tightly, large curved pieces do not, and stripe or check matching, one-way prints and napped cloths all push the figure down because they restrict how pieces may be placed.

Why does my fabric minimum exceed my garment order?

Because the minimum belongs to the process, not to your garment count: a dyed shade under 160 GSM is a dye lot of at least 1,500 m per colour (3,000 m at 160 GSM and above), and the lot runs at that size whether you cut 300 garments from it or 900. A 300-piece style at 1.6 m per shirt consumes 480 m — the other 1,020 m of a dyed lot is the batch the machine needs, not a quantity anyone chose. Nothing has gone wrong; a garment order and a fabric commitment answer different constraints, and restructuring the order — fewer colourways, digital printing, available fabric — is what closes the gap.

How do I reduce the fabric I have to commit to?

Reduce the number of separate lots, not the number of garments. Cutting one dyed colourway removes 1,500 m at a stroke; halving the garment count removes nothing while the order sits below the minimum. Beyond that: print digitally instead of dyeing where the design allows (a 100 m floor per colour per design instead of 1,500 m), pool several styles onto one shared base so their consumption fills a single lot together, and draw from available dyed, printed and RFD qualities, which trigger no processing minimum at all.

On typical values: the consumption bands, marker-efficiency figures and matching allowances above are indicative planning guidance resting on the stated assumptions — your pattern, size curve and marker decide the real figures, and anything order-specific, including the cutting allowance, is confirmed at inquiry. The processing minimums and tolerance bands are confirmed figures, restated on each order confirmation. Burhan Enterprises is a sourcing and export partner and coordinates through partner mills and processing units.

Send the garment counts — we'll send back the lot structure

Tell us the garment, the piece counts, and how many colours and designs they split into. We'll convert the counts to metres, show which minimum each lot lands on, and separate what must be custom from what available fabric can cover.

Plan a sourcing brief