Jelly rolls of quilt fabric are totally adorable and super easy to collect. There are also a ton of patterns that call for a jelly roll or specify 2.5” strips. But every once in awhile, we find a pattern we love that would be perfect for our jelly roll, but the pattern calls for yardage. How to figure out how many jelly rolls we would need? 

The first step is to learn the number of strips in a typical jelly roll – 38-42 strips is typical. This is because a quilt fabric designer collection is usually around 18-22 different fabrics. And jelly rolls will have 2ish of each print in the collection. Also, since the strips are width of fabric (WOF) we only need to think about the yardage in a single direction.

1 yard = 36 inches

36 / 2.5 inches = 14 strips (plus a little extra)

42 strips (jelly roll) / 14 strips = 3 yards (very roughly)

So, practically, a jelly roll has 3 yards worth of fabric. If you want to use scraps or your stash for that jelly roll pattern, you would need about 3 yards worth. And if you wanted to use jelly rolls for a pattern that requires yardage, you can add up all the pertinent yardage on the pattern and know that you will need a jelly roll for every 3 yards required.