About Seam & Story

Seam & Story is a small set of free calculators for people who sew their own clothes. Each one tackles a job that usually means a pencil, a calculator and a second try: drafting a circle skirt, making enough bias tape, changing seam allowances, spacing buttonholes, planning pleats and choosing a machine needle.

How it works

Every calculation runs in your browser as you type. Nothing you enter is sent to a server, and there is no account to make. Your choice of inches or centimetres and of light or dark theme is remembered in your browser's local storage so the next page opens the same way.

Where the numbers come from

The geometry (radii, strip counts, pleat take-up, button spacing) is worked out exactly from your measurements, and each page explains the formula with a worked example. Rules of thumb, such as buttonhole length, waistband ease, hem depths and needle sizes, come from the published sources listed at the foot of each page: extension guides from New Mexico State University, the American Sewing Guild, SCHMETZ, Brother, Gütermann, Clover and others. Fabric behaves differently from paper, so treat every result as a plan to check with a test piece.

Who is behind it

Seam & Story is an independent site; it is not connected with any pattern company, needle maker or fabric shop named on its pages, and it sells nothing. It is one of a family of small tool sites listed in the footer.

See the privacy page for exactly what happens to data.