What is pre-cut fabric?

Find out what you can do with pre-cut fabric here!

Are you a beginner quilter? Are you a seasoned quilter who's unfamiliar with pre-cuts, and looking for some more ideas for your next quilt?

Here is where you can find more information on Moda Fabrics & other manufacturer's pre-cut types, as well as get pre-cut fabric project ideas, so you know which is best for you!

What is pre-cut fabric?

If you're just diving into the wonderful world of quilting, or you're getting back into if after a long break, you might have noticed that pre-cut fabric has made quite a big splash on the scene in the past few years.

Fabric manufacturers such as Moda Fabrics, Robert Kaufman, Riley Blake and RJR Fabrics started selling pre-cuts as a way to promote their new fabric lines.

Pre-cuts usually have fabric from the same collection, so it's easy to match up colours and patterns. That can save you a lot of time, and make your quilting projects easier and faster!

What are the benefits of pre-cut fabric?

Variety

Pre-cuts will typically contain one print of every fabric in a collection, and sometimes duplicates of the more popular ones. With pre-cuts, you always ensure you get at least one of each fabric from a collection, without breaking the bank!

Perfectly matched fabric

Don't have time (or the skill) to perfectly match all the colours, hues and tones together for your next project? All the colours and patterns in a pre-cut work together perfectly as they all come from the same collection!

Save time

The less time you spend cutting, means you have more time to quilt and sew! Pre-cuts save you an incredible amount of time, and are just what you need if you're prone to getting sore hands from cutting, or if you have arthritis. 

Reduce fabric waste

Pre-cut friendly patterns reduce fabric waste, leaving you with less of a scrap pile to deal with later. Scrap piles CAN and WILL add up, as we all know. :)

Save money

Less fabric wasted means more money back in your pocket. Instead of buying too much fabric yardage, you get exactly what you need for your project in a pre-cut bundle!

They are so, so pretty

Don't those jelly rolls look so lovely up on your shelf? All wrapped up and colourful, ready to inspire your next quilt? Most of the time, it's hard to open them. They really add that extra colour and life to your sewing room shelves. :)

What are the different pre-cut fabric sizes?

Moda is a pioneer when it comes to pre-cuts, as they came up with a lot of the (delicious!) names for many of them, including jelly rolls and layer cakes.

You may be asking yourself "Why all the scrumptious sounding names? I thought I was making a quilt and not baking a tasty treat!" :)

Moda's bakery branding of the names starts to make sense when they call their wonderful collections of patterns "recipes". These "recipes" can be found on the Moda Bake Shop. The patterns at Moda Bake Shop are designed specifically for the different pre-cut types, so it's less confusing than trying to figure out which one is best on your own.

The image below is a great cheat sheet to quickly see many of the popular Moda pre-cut names and types as well as their sizes!

So you might be thinking to yourself "OK, that's great - I know what jelly rolls, charm packs and layer cakes are, but what the heck are stackers and roll ups?"

Well, each manufacturer has some of their own terms as well for their own pre-cut types. For instance, Riley Blake has "stackers" which are 5" squares just like charm packs, and Robert Kaufman has "roll ups" which are 2.5" strips just like jelly rolls.

Be sure to check out the different pre-cut types below to get more information on how they can be used in your next quilt, as well as some great FREE Moda patterns to use them with! (Who doesn't like FREE patterns?) :)

Fat Quarter Bundle Dimensions

Fat Quarter Dimensions

• 18" x 22" (Standard Fat Quarters)
• 19.7" x 22" (Canadian Fat Quarters)

Fat Quarter Uses:

• Cut them into layer cakes (10" x 10")
• Cut them into charm squares (5" x 5")
• Cut them into jelly roll strips (2.5" x 42" fabric strips)
• Cut them into mini-charm squares (2.5" x 2.5")

Fat quarter bundles are 18” x 22” pieces of fabric. Traditional quarter yards of fabric are cut from selvedge which gives you approximately 9” by 44 piece of fabric. This limits you as to how many cuts of fabric you get out of the 9” strip. Whereas a fat quarter folds the yard in half, then half again and cuts into “square” quarters giving you more fabric and a better format to cut smaller squares, rectangles and/or triangles. Fat quarter bundles generally consist of 1 of every each print in the collection. And as collections vary, so do the number of fat quarters in any given bundle. A fat quarter can be cut into 2 – 10” squares (layer cakes) with extra fabric for 4 – 5” charm squares 12 – 5” charm squares and a 22” Jolly strip. 56 – 2.5” mini charm squares. 7 – 2.5” x 22” Jelly Roll strips or 8 – 2.5” x 18” Jelly Roll strips. The possibilities for projects are endless!

Jelly Roll Dimensions

Jelly Roll Dimensions

• 2.5" x 42" (Width of fabric strips)

Jelly Roll Uses:

• Borders, sashing, and binding.
• Fussy-cut large prints.
• Frame appliques.
• Quilted place mats
• Table runners.
• Pillow cases.
• Jelly roll race quilts.
• Jelly roll rugs.

Jelly rolls are 2.5” x the width of fabric strips. There are typically 42 strips in each pack. Jelly rolls are very flexible in the quilting world. On their own, you can make the awesome-ly easy jelly roll race quilt. Who doesn’t want a beautiful quilt top pieced in one evening! Jelly rolls can be great for borders, sashing and binding! You can sub-cut them to frame appliques or fussy-cut large prints. Quilted place mats, table runners and pillow cases are just a fraction of the possibilities these pre-cuts can inspire you to create. Jelly Rolls are also known as: Rolie Polies, Maple Rolls, Roll Ups, Pixie-Strips, Bali Snaps.

They can also be used to make the incredibly popular and easy to make jelly roll rugs!

Layer Cake Dimensions

Layer Cake Dimensions

• 10" x 10" (Squares)

Layer Cake Uses:

• Cut them into charm squares (5" x 5")
  
• Cut them into jelly roll strips (2.5" x 42" fabric strips)
• Cut them into mini-charm squares (2.5" x 2.5")
• Patchwork sofa blankets.
• Pillows.

Layer cakes are 10” x 10” pieces of square fabric. They are jumbo sized charm packs! Layer cakes are great alone or versatile in that they can be cut to be charms, mini charms or jelly roll strips. Match a print layer cake and a solid charm to make those colors pop! Layer Cakes are as flexible to use as a fat quarter in my opinion. Again, sew them together out of the wrapper to make an easy stylish patchwork sofa blanket or pillows. Layer Cakes are also knows as: 10″ Stackers, Maple Cakes, 10 Squares, Bali Crackers, Patty Cakes.

Charm Pack Dimensions

Charm Pack Dimensions

• 5" x 5" (Squares)

Charm Pack Uses:

• Baby quilts.
• Baby bags.
• Bags and totes.
• Sachets pouches.