Crochet garment ease calculator

A garment is not made to your body measurement: it is made bigger, or sometimes smaller, by an amount called ease. This calculator adds your ease, then works out the width and stitch count for each panel of a seamed or seamless pullover, or an open or buttoned cardigan, at your gauge.

How to use the calculator

1. Choose the garment: seamed or in-the-round pullover, open cardigan or buttoned cardigan.
2. Measure your chest or bust over the clothes you will wear underneath.
3. Enter the ease. As a guide, about +2 to 4 in (5 to 10 cm) gives a classic fit, +6 in or more a relaxed one, and negative ease only works in stretchy fabric.
4. Enter a seam allowance for seamed panels, the button band width for a buttoned cardigan, your stitch gauge and any stitch repeat.

How the calculator works

Finished chest = body measurement + ease

• In the round: the whole finished chest × stitch gauge, rounded to the repeat.
• Seamed pullover: back and front are each half the finished chest, plus a seam allowance at each side: panel = finished ÷ 2 + 2 × seam allowance.
• Cardigan: the back is the same as a pullover's. Each front is a quarter of the chest, less half a band width, because the two button bands overlap at the centre: each front = (finished ÷ 2 − band width) ÷ 2 + seam allowance. The band stitches are listed separately.

Widths × gauge give the stitch counts, rounded to any stitch repeat. The ease is also shown as a percentage of your body measurement.

Reading your results

• Finished chest: with the ease as a percentage.
• Stitches per panel, or back and each front.
• Panels table: the width and stitches for every piece, including the button band for a buttoned cardigan.

Worked examples

• Seamed pullover: a 38 in bust with +6 in ease is 44 in finished. With ¼ in seams, each panel is 44 ÷ 2 + 0.5 = 22.5 in, which is 90 stitches at 16 per 4 in.
• Buttoned cardigan: a 40 in bust with +4 in ease and a 2 in band, no seam allowance. The back is 22 in (88 stitches); each front is (22 − 2) ÷ 2 = 10 in (40 stitches); the band is 8 stitches wide, worked afterwards.

Accuracy and limits

• The arithmetic is exact and covered by our automated tests. Ease itself is a matter of taste and fabric, so the figures above are guides, not rules.
• Crochet fabric is thicker and stretches less than knitting, so most crochet garments need some positive ease.
• The back and front are equal halves of the chest. For a fuller bust or a different back width, adjust the panels yourself.
• Shaping above the chest, such as armholes and necklines, is in the armhole and neckline calculator.

Common mistakes

1. Measuring over bare skin for an outer layer. Measure over what you will wear underneath.
2. Using knitting ease. Knitting patterns often use less ease, because knitted fabric stretches more.
3. Forgetting the band. In a buttoned cardigan the bands overlap, so the fronts are narrower than half the back each.

Tips for more accurate results

• Measure a garment you like, flat across the chest, and double it: the difference from your body measurement is the ease you like.
• Swatch in the garment's stitch and block it before measuring gauge.
• To make several sizes at once, use the pattern grading calculator.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides and tools

• Why double crochet drapes well in garments