You buy 1 1/4 yards of fabric and an $8 clothing pattern. your total cost with a 6% sales tax added is $18.55. what is the cost per yard of the fabric?

First we can divide it by 106 then multiply it by 100 to get rid of the 6% sales tax, which now the cost of the stuff is $17.50. 
Next, we subtract 8 from this to represent the clothing pattern cost. Now it is $9.50.
The last stap to this is to divide it by 1 1/4 to get the final cost per yard: 
The fabric costs $7.60 per yard. Hope this helps!