A Cut Above: 14 Types of Precuts

Photo provided by Canva.

Jelly rolls. Fat quarters. Layer cakes. New quilters may have seen these terms online or in fabric stores as they begin their quilting journey, but what do these terms mean?

Welcome to A Cut Above: 14 Types of Precuts. Precut fabric is fabric cut to specific dimensions for you, so you can spend less time cutting and more time sewing! Precut fabric is often sold in coordinating colors and patterns, taking the pressure off of you to choose your own colors and patterns via fabrics sold by the yard. Many precut packs come with about forty pieces of fabric, so you can get a huge variety of fabrics without having to buy so many larger cuts! Many quilting patterns are designed with precut packs in mind. Let’s explore some of the lovely types of precuts below.

Types of Precuts:

Photo provided by Canva.

In order, roughly from largest to smallest:

1. Half Yard Bundles – 18” x 42-44” – As the name suggests, these cuts are half the width of a typical yard of fabric. They run the full length of the bolt, so 42-44”, making them an excellent, versatile choice for large quilts, borders, etc. You can easily purchase half yard cuts at your local quilt shop, and some sellers have half-yard bundles available with about 12 coordinating fabrics per bundle, taking the guesswork out of coordinating prints yourself.
2. Fat Quarter Bundles – 18” x 21-22” – These are the most common specialty cut and the original precut first available! The size allows for a wide variety of smaller cuts and applications, while the bundles offer a large variety of coordinating fabrics to choose from! Often every print in a fabric collection will be included in a fat quarter bundle. Fat quarters are super popular with quilt designers, so you will find no shortage of projects using these versatile precuts!
3. Fat Eighth Bundles – 9” x 21-22”, OR 11” x 18” – Fat eighth cuts are great for smaller-scale blocks and projects. If you are following a pattern calling for fat eighths, double check both the dimensions the project calls for and the dimensions on the bundle you are planning to purchase, as these cuts come in 9” x 21-22” cuts or 11” x 18”.
4. Fat Sixteenth Bundles – 4.5” x 21-22” OR 9” x 11” – This is a less popular precut in quilting, but you may find some patterns calling for them! Depending on the direction the fat sixteenth is cut, it could measure 4.5” x about 21”, a skinnier rectangle, or 9” x 11”.
5. Layer Cakes – 10” x 10” – These precut squares are perfect for creating beginner-friendly patchwork designs. You can frame the blocks with thinner strips of fabric to create a beautiful windowpane quilt. These are also great for cutting circles, half square triangles, or quarter square triangles.
6. Jolly Bars – 5” x 10” – This precut is exclusive to Fat Quarter Shop, an online fabric retailer. Jolly bars are a wonderful size for quilting projects that are beginner friendly. You can find many inspirational designs for these precuts in Fat Quarter Shop’s Shortcut Quilt series.
7. Dessert Rolls – 5-6.5” x 42-44” – Dessert rolls are the full length of a bolt of fabric but only 5-6.5” wide, making long strips that can be used for a wide variety of quilt tops! One suggestion is to make a lovely cobblestone style quilt where the fabric strips are cut to smaller rectangles and arranged in a brick pattern with a contrasting background.
8. Jelly Rolls – 2.5” x 42-44” – These long strips of coordinating fabric are great for a wide variety of projects. One popular option is a jelly roll race quilt, a beginner-friendly project made from sewing all the strips end-to-end, then folding the long strip in half and sewing it side to side repeatedly to create a random pattern of horizontal strips for the quilt top. That’s just one option; there are tons of quilt pattern designs out there that call for jelly rolls. They’re also just so pretty!
9. Honey Buns – 1.5” x 42-44” – Pair a honey bun with a larger matching piece of fabric and create your next log cabin quilt! Log cabin blocks are perfect for honey buns because they feature narrow strips of fabric worked clockwise around a square for an increasingly larger finished block.
10. Charm Packs – 5” x 5” – Charm packs are one of the most popular precuts in quilting for a variety of reasons. The size is very common in quilting. For example, they are used in one-patch blocks, four-patch blocks, for making half-square triangles, and more. They are also one of the most affordable precuts out there!
11. Mini Charm Packs – 2.5” x 2.5” – The smaller version of charm packs, these minis are wonderful for English paper piecing, or for any quilt designs featuring a 2” anchoring square in the pattern. They are especially popular for making 1” hexagons. They are often used in smaller projects like purses, table runners, and mug rugs.
12. Hexagons – 5-6” – You can work an entire quilt top in hexagons! You can simply arrange them in a random, tessellating pattern, or arrange them intentionally. One popular design is grandmother’s flower garden, where hexagons are arranged to look like, you guessed it, flowers!
13. Half-Square Triangles – 5-10” – Half-square triangles are a very popular shape used in quilting! You can see them featured in simple quilt blocks like the friendship star, pinwheel, and shoofly, as well as much more complicated and intricate designs!
14. Circles – These come in a wide range of sizes primarily available through independent sellers on Etsy. Circles are used in the viral TikTok hand-sewn hexagon quilt pattern.

What are your favorite precuts to use? We’d love to hear your thoughts below in the comments!