Template Resize Calculator: Printer Percentage for Quilt Patterns

Calculator

Turn on JavaScript to use the calculator, or use the table below.

How the percentage works

Scale percentage = size you want ÷ size it makes now × 100. A 6-inch block printed at 150% makes a 9-inch block; a 12-inch block printed at 66.7% makes an 8-inch one. The percentage applies to every line on the page, so measure the same thing both times: the finished block (the sewing line all the way around), not the outer edge.

That detail matters because of the seam allowance. Paper piecing patterns and many templates print a quarter-inch cutting line outside the sewing line, and printing at 150% turns that quarter inch into three eighths. The sewing lines are right; the cutting line isn’t. After resizing, ignore the printed outer line and cut a true quarter inch outside the sewing lines with your ruler. With paper piecing you trim each seam to a quarter inch as you go anyway, so only the final trim of the block needs care.

You know	Calculate	Example
Size now and size wanted	wanted ÷ now × 100	6 to 9 in: 150%
Printer prints small	percentage ÷ measured check square	66.7% with a 0.97-in square: 68.7%
More than 400%	print twice at the square root	500%: 223.6% twice
New printed size	old printed size × percentage	6½ in at 150%: 9¾ in

Check your printer first

A print dialog set to “Fit to page” shrinks the page a little to fit the printer’s margins. In the print dialog, choose “Actual size”, “100%” or turn off “Fit to page”, and print a page with a 1-inch square on it. Measure it with a quilting ruler, not a sewing tape. If it measures anything but 1 inch, type what it measured into the calculator and it adjusts the percentage. A square that prints at 0.97 inch makes a 12-inch block come out 11.64 inches, short by more than a quarter inch, which is enough to stop it fitting its neighbors.

Print every section of a paper piecing pattern on the same printer at the same setting. Two sections printed differently won’t line up.

Percentage table

Find the size the pattern makes now in the left column and the size you want across the top.

Template resize percentages (wtcquilt.com)

Print at 100% (“actual size”) first and check a 1-inch square. Then print at the percentage below. Sizes are finished block sizes.

Pattern makes	3 in	4 in	5 in	6 in	8 in	9 in	10 in	12 in
3 in	100%	133.3%	166.7%	200%	266.7%	300%	333.3%	400%
4 in	75%	100%	125%	150%	200%	225%	250%	300%
5 in	60%	80%	100%	120%	160%	180%	200%	240%
6 in	50%	66.7%	83.3%	100%	133.3%	150%	166.7%	200%
8 in	37.5%	50%	62.5%	75%	100%	112.5%	125%	150%
9 in	33.3%	44.4%	55.6%	66.7%	88.9%	100%	111.1%	133.3%
10 in	30%	40%	50%	60%	80%	90%	100%	120%
12 in	25%	33.3%	41.7%	50%	66.7%	75%	83.3%	100%

When resizing isn’t the right tool

Resizing works best for shapes with no fixed parts: applique templates, a paper piecing block, an English paper piecing shape. It works poorly when the new size has to match something that stays the same, such as a precut strip width or a ruler line. A pieced block cut with a rotary cutter is better resized by recalculating its cuts. Our block resizer does that for seven common blocks, and the half-square triangle calculator and square in a square calculator handle the units that most blocks are built from.

Very small reductions get hard to sew: below about 60%, the narrow sections of a paper piecing pattern shrink to strips you can barely fit a seam into. Very large enlargements may need several sheets; tape them together along the printed edges and check the 1-inch square on each sheet. For a whole quilt layout, the sashing calculator and border calculator show what a change in block size does to the finished quilt.

Template resize calculator