Skip to content
Lami TrimsAll designs

How much trim do I need?

Measure every edge the trim will cover, add roughly 10% for turnings, mitres and a test length, then divide by the put-up — the fixed length on one piece. Round up to a whole piece. Trims here are sold by the piece and are not cut to length, so the answer is always a number of pieces.

Written by Jugal Kachiwala, who runs the retail arm

Last updated

What you need

  • A tape measure
  • The garment, or its pattern pieces
  • The put-up of the design you want, from its product page

Step by step

  1. Step 1

    Measure every edge the trim will cover

    Measure along the finished edge, not across the flat pattern piece, and measure each edge separately — two cuffs are two runs, not one. A hem measured on a laid-out panel is shorter than the hem the trim has to travel once the garment is made up.

  2. Step 2

    Add for turnings, mitres and joins

    Every end folded under costs a few centimetres, every mitred corner costs roughly the width of the trim twice over, and a design with a repeat has to be joined so the pattern continues rather than wherever the last piece ran out. Around 10% covers all three on ordinary work; take more when the trim is wide, the corners are many, or the repeat is long.

  3. Step 3

    Add a test length

    Keep back enough to sew a sample on a scrap of the actual fabric before touching the garment. It is the only way to find out that a heavy trim drags a fine cloth out of line, or that the iron setting the fabric wants is hotter than the trim will take, while it still costs nothing.

  4. Step 4

    Convert the total into pieces

    Divide the total by the put-up — the fixed length wound on one piece, shown on every product page — and round up. There is no rounding down: a piece is the unit of sale, and half a piece short of a hem is a hem that does not close.

  5. Step 5

    Buy the shades together

    Where a design is woven in several shades, each shade is its own article number and its own stock. A run split across two orders can meet a different dye lot, so buy the whole quantity of one shade at once rather than topping up later.

Words used here

Put-up
The length a trim is wound on, whether that is a spool, a card or a cut piece. Two shops quoting the same price per piece are not quoting the same thing unless the put-up matches.
Repeat
The distance before a woven or embroidered pattern starts again. Buy the length plus one repeat when several pieces have to match, or each will begin at a different point in the pattern.
Article number
The code that identifies one design across every colour it is made in. It is what you write on the pattern, and what you quote to buy the same thing again.
Colourway
One colour version of a design. The same article number in twelve colourways is one design, not twelve.

In short

Can I buy trim by the metre?
No. Trims here are sold by the piece and are not cut to length — each design is wound to a fixed put-up, shown on its product page, and that piece is the unit of sale. Work out the metres you need, then round up to whole pieces.
How much extra should I add?
Around 10% over the measured run covers turnings, mitred corners and a short test length on ordinary work. Add more when the trim is wide, the corners are many, or the pattern has a long repeat that has to be matched at every join.
Is there a minimum order?
No. One piece is an order.
What is a put-up?
The fixed length wound on one piece of a design. It is stated on every product page, and it is the number to divide your measured run by.
Other guides

About the author

Jugal Kachiwala

Retail, Lami Trims

Jugal Kachiwala has worked with the output of Lami Trims' looms since 2023, and runs the mill's retail arm. The designs on this site come off the company's own jacquard and embroidery machines in Surat; these guides are the answers the shop gives buyers who write in asking how much to order, how to attach a border, or how to wash what they have bought.

General trade practice, not a house method — the steps say what to do and why, and they do not underwrite the result on somebody else's fabric, thread and machine. Test on an offcut first. The definitions are from our glossary.

Added to bag