Photo2PatternFree aida cloth calculator
Aida cloth calculator — the piece to buy, not the piece you stitch
Give a design in stitches, an aida count and the way the finished piece will be held, and this returns the rectangle to ask for at the counter — the stitched area plus the plain border a card, a hoop, a lacing board or a set of stretcher bars each need, added on all four sides and rounded up rather than to nearest. It is free, needs no account, and works in this tab. It also restates the border in blocks, so you can count it on the cloth, and reports the share of the rectangle that will never carry a stitch — near 70% on a typical hoop-mounted piece, which is the number that explains why a meter of aida goes nowhere.
- 100% free
- No signup
- 8 aida counts
- 4 finishing margins
- Rounds up, never down
14 blocks to the inch, one block to a stitch. A margin of one inch is 14 blocks of plain cloth here.
Switching converts the margin you already typed.
Three inches on every side is the working default: the inner ring has to close on plain cloth rather than on stitching, and the tail gets gathered and laced behind the ring.
Counted per side, so this figure is added twice to the width and twice to the height.
Ask the shop for this rectangle of 14-count
- Cut size
- 14.75 × 12.50 in
- 37.5 × 32.0 cm. Each figure is rounded up from the same measurement, so the two are not conversions of one another.
- Of which stitched
- 8.57 × 6.43 in
- 70% of the rectangle carries no stitches — 129 square inches of border, hem and grip.
- Border in blocks
- 42
- Blocks of plain cloth between the cut edge and the outermost stitch, which is the unit you will actually be counting when you find your start.
Finding the first stitch
Fold the cut piece in half and in half again; the crossing of the two creases is the center of the cloth and the center of the chart at once. That lands 3.09 in in from the left edge and 3.04 in down from the top before the first stitch, a little more than the margin you asked for because the cut was rounded up.
Neither side of this chart has a middle stitch: the center falls between columns 60 and 61 and between rows 45 and 46. Choose one of each pair, mark it, and keep to the choice — a chart counted from the other half on day three is a chart half a stitch off the crease.
Before the first stitch goes in
A cut edge of aida unravels as it is handled, and the loss is real rather than cosmetic: two or three blocks off each edge over the weeks a piece takes. Bind it first — a zigzag on a machine, an overcast by hand, or a strip of masking tape folded over the edge — and the 42-block border stays the border you calculated.
Cut along a row of holes rather than across one. Aida is a grid, and a cut that wanders through the blocks frays roughly twice as fast as one that follows the weave.
This figure is an estimate, not a measurement. It assumes 3 inches of plain cloth on each of the four sides for a piece “left in the hoop it was stitched in”, the edges bound before work starts, and the rectangle rounded up to the next quarter inch and the next half centimeter. Every part of that is editable above, and your own shop’s guidance beats ours — buy the extra inch.
What each way of finishing costs in cloth
Same 120 × 90 design, same 14-count
| Finish | Per side | In blocks | Cut size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card window, ornament or a flat-back finish | 2 in | 28 | 12.75 × 10.50 in32.4 × 26.7 cm |
| Left in the hoop it was stitched in | 3 in | 42 | 14.75 × 12.50 in37.5 × 31.8 cm |
| Laced over a board and framed | 4 in | 56 | 16.75 × 14.50 in42.5 × 36.8 cm |
| Stretcher bars or a scroll frame | 5 in | 70 | 18.75 × 16.50 in47.6 × 41.9 cm |
Three inches a side separate the top row from the bottom, which is six inches on each dimension: 134 square inches of cloth against 309. Cloth is priced by area, so on this design the finishing method alone multiplies the bill by 2.3 — and it is the one input on this page that the chart does not decide for you. If the design is still movable, the cross stitch size calculator shows what the same stitches measure on every count, linen and evenweave included.
Against cloth you already own
Measure the piece in the drawer and this says whether the design fits it, which way round, and how many copies it would yield. Leave the fields empty to skip the check.
How to work out the aida to order
The middle question is about the frame, not about the stitching, which is why it is the easy one to answer wrongly.
Describe the design in stitches, then pick the count
The pair of whole numbers on the chart is the input, and the count turns them into inches at one block per stitch. Aida is blocked cloth, so there is no over-two question to answer here — a block is a stitch and the division is direct. Watch the hint under the count field as you change it: it restates one inch as a number of blocks, and blocks are the unit you will be counting on the cloth itself when you look for the start.
Say what will be holding the piece when it is finished
This is the input that actually decides the answer, and it is a decision about the finished object rather than about the stitching. A flat-backed card wants two inches of spare cloth on each side, a hoop mount three, a framer lacing over a board four, and stretcher bars or a scroll frame five, because the frame grips the outer edge and everything it grips has to be outside the design. Each preset writes its figure into the margin field, which you can then overwrite — the field wins, and the page tells you when what you typed is too little to mount.
Buy the rounded-up rectangle, and bind it before the first stitch
The cut size goes up to the next quarter inch and the next half centimeter, separately, because cloth is cut against a ruler and a rectangle half an inch short cannot be uncut. Take the larger figure to the shop. Then zigzag, overcast or tape the four edges before you start: a raw aida edge loses two or three blocks over the weeks a piece takes, and that comes out of the border you just paid for. If you already own a piece, type its size into the last panel and the page will tell you whether it clears, whether a quarter turn rescues it, and how many full cuts it holds.
Technical specifications
| Counts on offer | 8: 6, 8, 11, 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22 blocks to the inch, always one block per stitch. Aida is not woven much finer than 20; the 22 is Hardanger, a paired weave that is stocked beside it and counted the same way |
|---|---|
| Finishing presets | 4, each a per-side figure: flat-backed card 2 in, mounted in the hoop 3 in, laced over board and framed 4 in, stretcher bars or a scroll frame 5 in. Typing in the margin field overrides whichever was chosen |
| The default assumption | 3 in on each of the four sides, which puts 6 in on the width and 6 in on the height. On a 120 × 90 chart at 14-count that gives a 14.75 × 12.50 in rectangle, of which 70% never carries a stitch |
| Rounding | Up only, to the next quarter inch and the next half centimeter, each computed from the same measurement rather than from each other. Nothing on this page rounds to nearest, because a short rectangle cannot be uncut |
| Border restated in blocks | The same margin counted in aida blocks, which is the unit you count on the cloth: 3 in is 18 blocks on 6-count, 42 on 14-count and 54 on 18-count |
| Center finding | The fold-in-four center of the cut, plus the center of the chart — including the case nobody mentions, where an even number of columns means there is no middle stitch and the page names the two it falls between |
| Checking cloth you already own | Takes a piece up to 400 in on a side and returns the clearance or the shortfall on each dimension, whether a quarter turn rescues it, and how many full cuts the piece would yield at the current margin |
| Data leaving the tab | None. The stitch counts, the margin and the size of your own cloth are typed here, divided here and gone when the tab closes |
Frequently asked questions
How much spare cloth do I actually need around a design?
Three inches on every side is the working default and it is a per-side figure, which is the detail that catches people — three inches all round adds six inches to the width and six to the height, not three. On a small design that can be more cloth than the stitching occupies, and it still is not generous: a hoop has to close on plain cloth rather than on your stitches, and a framer lacing the piece over a mount board needs enough to pull against on the reverse. Two inches is the floor and it commits you to a flat-backed finish; anything under an inch is not a border at all and this page says so rather than quietly returning a number.
My chart says 28-count. Can I just buy 28-count aida?
No, because it barely exists — aida is not woven much past 20 blocks to the inch, and a chart calling for 28 is calling for linen or evenweave. What that chart means is 14 stitches to the inch, since those cloths are worked over two threads, so the aida to buy is 14-count and the finished piece comes out at exactly the same size. The count on this page is always blocks per inch and always one block per stitch; if the number you are holding came off a linen chart, halve it first or run it through the cross stitch size calculator, which carries the threads-per-stitch term explicitly.
Why does the cut size round up to a quarter inch?
Because rounding is only safe in one direction when the thing being rounded is cut with scissors. A quarter inch of surplus disappears into the border and nobody ever notices it; a quarter inch of shortfall is discovered at the framing stage, months later, and cannot be undone. The inch and centimeter figures are each rounded up from the same underlying measurement rather than converted from one another, so they will not always be exact equivalents — if you are buying from a metric shop, use the centimeter pair and ignore the inches entirely rather than converting between the two.
Does aida fraying change the size I should buy?
It is already covered by a normal margin, provided you bind the edges before you start. A raw aida edge unravels as the piece is handled and rolled, and two or three blocks off each side over several weeks is ordinary — under a quarter of an inch at 14-count, which the border absorbs. Bind it with a machine zigzag, an overcast by hand, or a strip of masking tape folded over the edge, and cut along a row of holes rather than diagonally through the blocks: a cut that follows the weave frays roughly half as fast as one that wanders across it.
Should I wash aida before I stitch on it?
Most stitchers do not, and the reason is the finish rather than the fiber. Cotton aida is sold with a sizing that makes it stiff and pleasant to work, and washing takes that out along with a small amount of shrinkage — you get a limp cloth that then has to be pressed. The usual answer is to leave it alone, keep the margin generous enough to absorb any movement, and wash the piece once at the end when the stitching is holding the weave together. If you are stitching something that will definitely be washed hard afterwards, a table linen rather than a picture, pre-washing and recutting to these figures is the safer order.
Can I get more than one project out of a single piece?
Often, and the last panel counts it for you rather than leaving you to do it with a tape measure on the floor. Type the piece you own and it reports how many full cuts of the current design fit, trying both orientations — aida has no nap or direction, so turning the chart a quarter turn is free apart from counting rows where you expected columns. The figure to watch alongside it is the share of each cut that never carries a stitch, which sits near 70% on a typical hoop-mounted piece; that is not waste in the sense of being wasted, but it does mean a meter of cloth goes nowhere near as far as the design sizes suggest.
The rectangle I need is wider than any cloth I can buy. What now?
Move the design to a finer count, because joining aida is not a repair anybody is happy with. A seam runs through the grid, the blocks on either side never quite line up, and the join sits under stitching that has to cross it — which is why designs that outgrow a bolt are normally re-planned rather than pieced. Going from 14-count to 18-count takes roughly a fifth off both dimensions at a stroke and often solves it outright. If the design itself is still negotiable, the other lever is fewer stitches: recharting the picture at a smaller grid shrinks the cloth and the stitch count together.
About the border, and why it is larger than anyone expects
Aida is one of the few fabrics designed for a craft rather than borrowed from one. It is woven in a basket pattern that groups threads into square blocks with an open hole at each corner, so the needle has somewhere obvious to go and a beginner does not have to count individual threads. The bolt is labeled by blocks to the inch — on most European cloth the name at the end of the bolt is Zweigart’s — and that number is the whole of the arithmetic: one block, one stitch, stitches divided by count gives inches. Which is exactly why the sums that go wrong on aida are never the division. They are the part the chart never mentions.
The border is that part, and two things make it larger than people expect. It is quoted per side, so a modest-sounding three inches is six inches on the width and six on the height; and it is set by the finishing method, which most stitchers have not decided when they buy the cloth. A hoop needs its inner ring to close on plain fabric rather than on stitches. A framer pulls the piece around a mount board and laces it front to back across the reverse, and under about four inches a side there is nothing to pull against, which shows through the front as a wave. Stretcher bars and scroll frames grip the outer edge outright, so everything they hold has to sit outside the design. Deciding to frame a piece halfway through stitching it is the single commonest way a finished cross stitch turns out to be unframeable, and the most useful thing this page does is force that decision to the front where it costs nothing. Most calculators skip it entirely: they return the stitched area, label it “fabric needed”, and have answered a different question — the one the cross stitch size calculator is for, where nothing is bought and the finished measurement is the whole point.
Two habits make the number on this page hold up in practice. Bind the four edges before the first stitch, because a raw aida edge gives up two or three blocks over the weeks a piece takes and that loss comes straight out of what the frame was going to grip. And start from the center rather than from a corner: fold the cut in four, tack the creases, and work outwards, so a miscount is a local error instead of a design that drifts off the cloth. Everything above assumes a design that has already been charted; if it has not, the stitch counts come from the cross stitch pattern maker, and it is worth first reducing the picture to a coarse grid of blocks to see how few cells the subject survives before committing cloth to it. Canvas behaves the same way and wants more of a border rather than less, since needlepoint is stretched on bars far more often than it is hooped.
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What this page keeps
Nothing you type here leaves the tab. The arithmetic runs in JavaScript on your own machine — there is no server to send it to, no account to sign in to and nothing stored between visits. Close the tab and nothing of it remains.
That includes the last panel, where you describe cloth you already own: those two measurements are compared against the cut size and then forgotten with everything else. The print button hands over the cutting figures and the finishing table alone, so the sheet that goes to the counter with you carries the rectangle and nothing that says what it is for.