How I measure a garment

Measurements are only useful if they are taken the same way twice. This is the way I take them.

The method

• The garment lies flat on the cutting table, buttoned or zipped, smoothed but not pulled.
• I measure edge to edge with a tape laid flat. The tape is never stretched and the cloth is never stretched.
• Widths are recorded flat — edge to edge, not around. Double a flat width for the circumference.
• Each point is taken twice. If the two readings disagree by more than a few millimetres, the garment gets smoothed and measured again.
• I record in centimetres because the patterns are drafted in centimetres. Inches are a conversion, not a second measurement.

Trousers and jeans

Point	Where the tape goes
Waist	Straight across the top edge of the waistband, flat.
Front rise	From the crotch seam up to the top of the waistband, along the front.
Back rise	The same line on the back. The back rise is always longer than the front.
Thigh	Straight across the leg, just under the crotch seam, at a right angle to the grain.
Knee	Straight across at the knee line marked on the pattern.
Leg opening	Straight across the bottom of the hem.
Inseam	From the crotch seam to the finished hem along the inner leg seam.

Jackets and coats

Point	Where the tape goes
Chest	Straight across, flat, from the base of one armhole to the other.
Shoulder	Across the back from shoulder seam to shoulder seam.
Sleeve	From the shoulder seam to the end of the cuff.
Body length	From the base of the collar at the centre back to the finished hem.

What these numbers are not

These are measurements of the garment, not of the person who will wear it. A jean waist measured flat on a table is a different thing from a waist measured on a body — the gap between the two is the fit. That gap is explained in Garment measurements are not body measurements.

There is no size chart on this site yet. The jean pattern is still moving between prototypes (see Why a prototype's fit changes), and a chart of numbers that will change is worse than none. When a run exists to measure, the numbers will be taken exactly as above.