Bust or chest
Around the fullest part, usually across the nipple line, with the tape level all the way round. Check the back in a mirror: it rides up more often than it stays level. Breathe out normally before you read it.
Choosing your size
How to measure yourself, and which size to cut
Sewing sizes are not shop sizes. A pattern is drafted to a set of body measurements, not to the number on the label of a dress you own, and the two rarely agree. Measure once, carefully, and cut with confidence.
Before you start
- A soft tape measure. A metal builder's tape cannot follow the curve of a body and will read short.
- Your usual underwear, and nothing bulky. Measure over what you would actually wear under the finished garment.
- A mirror, or somebody to help. Most readings go wrong because the tape has slipped at the back where you cannot see it.
- Something to write with. Write the numbers down. Do not trust yourself to remember three measurements while you look at a chart.
The three measurements every pattern uses
Stand as you normally stand — not pulled in, not braced. Keep the tape snug enough that it stays put, loose enough to slide a finger under. Never pull it tight. A tape pulled tight takes a measurement of a body that is being squeezed, and the finished garment will be too small.
Waist
Not where your jeans sit — the natural waist, which is the narrowest part of your torso, roughly level with your navel. Bend sideways: the crease that forms is your waist. Measure there.
Hip
Around the fullest part of your seat, feet together. That is usually 18–22 cm (7–9 in) below the waist, lower than most people expect. Keep the tape level front and back.
Reading the chart on a pattern page
Every pattern page carries the chart the pattern itself was drafted to. Find your three numbers in it and read across.
- Your measurements will land in more than one size. That is normal and it is not a problem — almost nobody is one size all the way down.
- Cut the largest size any of your measurements falls into, then take the garment in where it is loose. Letting a seam out is limited by the seam allowance; taking one in is not.
- For a top, blouse, shirt or jacket, let the bust decide. Shoulders and armholes are the hardest part to alter, and they follow the bust.
- For a skirt or trousers, let the hip decide, and adjust the waist. A waistband is easy to change; a seat is not.
- Between two sizes, size up for a woven fabric with no stretch, and size down for a knit that stretches.
Two different charts, and why both matter
Body measurements
The measurements of the person each size is drafted for. This is the chart you choose your size with: compare it against the numbers you have just taken.
Finished garment measurements
The measurements of the garment once it is sewn. Always larger than the body chart, because a garment has to be bigger than you to move in — that difference is called ease. Use this chart to see how loose or close the finished piece will sit.
A garment with 10 cm of ease at the bust is relaxed; one with 2 cm is fitted. If you like how a garment you already own fits, measure it flat and compare it with the finished measurements — it is the most reliable check there is.
When in doubt, make a toile
For anything fitted, or anything in fabric you would be sorry to waste, cut the bodice or the top half out of an old sheet or cheap calico first. It costs an hour and it tells you more than any chart can: where it pulls, where it gapes, whether the waist sits where your waist is. Mark the changes on the toile, move them onto the paper, then cut your real fabric.
Still not sure?
Send us your three measurements and the pattern you are looking at, and we will tell you which size we would cut. Live chat is open seven days a week, or write to contact@indie-patterns.com. A person reads it.
The full size chart, in centimetres and inches, is on our sewing pattern size chart. More answers in the sewing guides.